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UNITED STATES OF AMEEICA. 




Separation of Abram and Lot. — Page 243. 



TALES 



FROM THE BIBLE 



FOR THE YOUNG. 



BY 



WILLIAM M. THAYER, 

Author of " Life at the Fireside," " The Poor Boy and Merchant 

Prince," " The Poor Girl and True Woman," " From 

Poor-House to Pulpit," etc. 






BOSTON: 
J. E. TILTON AND COMPANY. 

1860. 



^^^ 



2)555 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 

J. E. TILTON AND COMPANY, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



University Press, Cambridge : 
Electrotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. 



PREFACE. 



These sacred narratives are designed for the young, 
from ten to sixteen years of age, although many 
younger readers will be able to understand and appre- 
ciate them, while still older persons may find most of 
them instructive and profitable. The style in which 
they are written is adapted to the understanding of 
youthful readers, while it is not so puerile as to offend 
the taste of riper years. 

Each narrative rehearsed is given somewhat in 
detail, and the imagination is allowed to supply the 
broken links of each story, so far as known facts will 
warrant, in order to secure the interest of the reader, 
and throw around the Bible a fascination that is justly 
its own. 

Special pains are taken to introduce as much Bib- 
lical knowledge as possible into these narratives, that 



IV PREFACE. 

the reader may become better acquainted with the 
Scriptures. Oriental habits and customs, ancient and 
modern, are explained, and the whole is interspersed 
with facts and anecdotes, from both sacred and profane 
history, by way of illustration. In this manner there 
is woven into the Tales a sort of running commentary. 

Important moral lessons, also, are derived from each 
narrative, that the reader may not overlook the design 
of these sacred incidents, biographies, and histories. 

If the Christian public give this humble volume a 
good reception, the author will be encouraged to go 
through the entire Bible in this manner, and issue a 
series of volumes that will be of permanent value in 
the family and Sabbath school. 

W. M. T. 



CONTENTS- 



Story of the Creation . . . . .13 

GOD DWELLING ALONE. — DETERMINED TO MAKE THE WORLD. 
— WHERE BEGAN TO CREATE. — WHY IT TOOK HIM SIX DAYS. — 
LIGHT MADE ON THE FIRST DAY. — LIGHT OLDER THAN ANY- 
THING ELSE. — DAY WITHOUT A SUN, AND NIGHT WITHOUT A 
MOON. — THE FIRMAMENT MADE ON THE SECOND DAY. — THE 
DRY LAND AND SEAS MADE ON THIRD DAY. — THE HEAVENLY 
BODIES MADE ON FOURTH DAY. — FIRST VIEW OF THE SUN. — A 
SUN TO RISE ON THE FIFTH DAY. — FIRST LIVING CREATURES 
MADE. — DAWN OF THE SIXTH DAY. — THE BEASTS AND MAN 
CREATED. — WE SEE ONLY TART OF WHAT GOD MADE. — THE 
SIZE OF OUR LITTLE EARTH. — THE EARTH COMPARED WITH THE 
SUN. — THE VESSEL SAILING. — A RAILROAD TO THE SUN. — THE 
STARS LARGER THAN THE SUN. — NUMBER OF STARS. — A TRIP 
TO THE NEAREST STAR. — TAKE SIXTY-FOUR YEARS TO COUNT THE 
STARS. — THE TELESCOPE AND MOST DISTANT STAR. — THERE MUST 
BE A GOD. — HOW GREAT IS GOD. — SHOULD LOVE, FEAR, AND 
REVERENCE HIM. 

II. 

Adam, the First Man -33 

ADAM NEVER A BABY. — MEANING OF HIS NAME. — NO ONE 
ELSE ON EARTH. — THE WESTERN PRAIRIE. — THE GARDEN OF 
EDEN. — THE LITTLE BOY WHO ASKED WHAT ADAM DID. — 
1* 



Yl CONTENTS. 

NAMING THE ANIMALS. — THE SPLENDID * PAINTING. — THE ANI- 
MALS TAME IN EDEN. — ADAM CREATED HOLY. — THE FORBIDDEN 
TREE. — A RIB FOR A WIFE. — ADAM'S SURPRISE. — THE SER- 
PENT. — EVE TASTING OF THE APPLE. — EXPULSION FROM EDEN. 

— THE ONLY COUPLE ON EARTH. — THEIR HUT. — ADAM'S HOE 
AND SHOVEL. — EVE WEEPING. — EXTRACT FROM MILTON. — 
THE FIRST BABE. — THE AGED MAN. — HOW DEATH CAME INTO 
THE WORLD. — ADAM'S DEATH-BED AND FUNERAL. — HOW CURI- 
OSITY RUINS THE YOUNG. — NO EXCUSE THAT OTHERS TEMPT US 
TO SIN. 

III. 

Cain, the First Bad Boy .... 54 

THE FIRST BOY EVER BORN A BAD ONE. — HE KILLED HIS 
BROTHER. — WHAT HIS MOTHER THOUGHT OF HIM AS A BABY. — 
CAIN RELIGIOUSLY EDUCATED. — HE WAS ALWAYS BAD. — UGLY. 

— HE BECAME A FARMER. — ABEL A BETTER BOY. — HOW AND 
WHERE CAIN KILLED ABEL. — WHY DID CAIN KILL HIS BROTH- 
ER ? — ABEL'S CORPSE CARRIED HOME. — THE FIRST DEATH 
CAUSED BY VIOLENCE. — BOY WHO TOLD HIS FATHER TO "LOOK 
UP." — CAIN'S LIE. — GOD CURSED HIM. — THE MARK ON CAIN. 

— HE WANDERED ABOUT AS A VAGABOND. — HIS CONSCIENCE. — 
THE MISERABLE DUELLIST IN A SOUTHERN CITY. — CAIN'S GOOD 
SON ENOCH. — CAIN'S DEATH. — SOME CHILDREN CAUSE THEIR 
PARENTS MUCH TROUBLE. — EVIL CONSEQUENCES OF A BAD TEM- 
PER. — PROFESSOR WEBSTER. — THE BEGINNING AND END. — SOME 
CHILDREN LIKE CAIN. 

IV. 

The First City 72 

ITS NAME WAS ENOCH. — CAIN ITS BUILDER. — WHY HE BUILT 
IT. — IT WAS NOT LIKE BOSTON OR NEW YORK. — NO TOOLS THEN 









CONTENTS. Yll 

TO WORK WITH. — HOW THE HOUSES WERE MADE. — A CITY OF 
SHANTIES. — A MUD WALL, AROUND IT. — THORN HEDGES. — WHEN 
MEN LIVED IN CAVES. — THE SAVIOUR'S ALLUSION TO MUD 
HOUSES. — A RICH MAN NOW COULD BUY A DOZEN CITIES LIKE 
ENOCH. — SEE THE PROGRESS OF MANKIND. — HOW MANY COM- 
FORTS THE YOUNG NOW ENJOY. 

V. 
Enoch, or the Man ivho never Died . . 82 

INTERVIEW BETWEDN MR. GRAVES AND ARTHUR. — WHEN 
ENOCH WAS BORN. — HOW RELATED TO ADAM. — HE WAS A NO- 
BLE BOY. — LISTENING TO ADAM'S STORIES AND COUNSELS. — 
DID NOT FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF EVIL YOUTH. — WHERE BI- 
BLE TELLS ABOUT ENOCH. — ONE STRIKING TEXT. — A GRAVE- 
STONE. — "WALKED WITH GOD." — A FATHER AND HIS SON. — 
HOW WE KNOW THAT HE DID NOT DIE. — HOW HE WENT TO 
HEAVEN. — PERHAPS AS ELIJAH DID. — A MYSTERIOUS SIGHT. — ■ 
WHY GOOD MEN NOW DO NOT GO TO HEAVEN SO. — THE FIRST 
MINISTER, AND A FEARLESS ONE. — ENOCH'S LAST DAYS. — A 
SINGLE TEXT THE KEY TO CHARACTER. — A MAN MAY BE GOOD, 
THOUGH ALL AROUND HIM ARE WICKED. 

VI. 

The Three Bright Brothers . . . .98 

A CHILD BORN WHEN THE WORLD WAS SIX HUNDRED YEARS 
OLD. — THE FIRST MAN WHO MARRIED TWO WIVES. — A MAN 
WITH SIX HUNDRED WIVES. — INFLUENCE OF EXAMPLE. — HIS 
WIVES' NAMES. — HE HAD THREE BRIGHT BOYS. — THEIR MUSICAL 
NAMES. — JABAL WAS INDUSTRIOUS, AND FOND OF CATTLE. — HE 
WAS THE FIRST SHEPHERD, AND INVENTED THE TENT. — WHO 
WERE SHEPHERDS AFTER HIM. — SIZE OF FLOCKS AND HERDS. — 



Vlll CONTENTS. 



JOSEPH AND HIS BRETHREN. — SHEPHERD LIFE IN THE EAST 
NOW. — JUBAL WAS A MUSICIAN. — HE INVENTED THE FIRST MU- 
SICAL INSTRUMENT. — HOW HE DID IT. — A MAN IN HOLLAND 
CUTTING LETTERS ON BARK OF TREE. — THE LOADSTONE IN A 
BASIN OF WATER. — THE HARP AND ORGAN. — THE TIMBREL AND 
LITTLE SWISS GIRLS. — JUBAL'S ORGAN A HARMONICA. — HIS PER- 
SEVERANCE. — TUBAL-CAIN THE FIRST BLACKSMITH. — MADE 
FARMING TOOLS AND WEAPONS OF WAR. — VALUE OF HIS IN- 
VENTIONS TO MANKIND. — SELDOM FIND THREE SUCH BRIGHT 
BOYS IN ONE FAMILY. — THEIR FATHER NOT A GOOD MAN. — 
BOYS SHOULD CHOOSE THE PURSUIT FOR WHICH THEY ARE BEST 
QUALIFIED. — WE SHOULD THINK MORE OF THESE BROTHERS HAD 
THEY BEEN PIOUS. 



VII. 

Noafts Ark, or the First Ship . . .121 

GOD RESOLVED TO SAVE NOAH. — COMMAND TO BUILD THE ARK. 
— ITS SIZE, DESCRIPTION OF IT. — INFIDEL SNEERS. — PTOLEMY'S 
SHIP WAS LARGER. — HIERO'S VESSEL LARGER STILL. — THE 
GREAT EASTERN OF OUR DAY LARGER THAN THE ARK. — HOW 
LONG NOAH WAS IN BUILDING IT. — WHAT HIS NEIGHBORS 
THOUGHT AND SAID. — HE WAS A PREACHER AND WARNED 
THEM. — ANIMALS GOING INTO THE ARK. — HOW THEY KNEW 
ENOUGH TO GO IN. — AN EXCITING DAY. — A CROWD GATHER TO 
TO SEE THE ANIMALS ENTER. — NOAH MOVES INTO THE ARK. — 
THE STORM COMMENCING. — DID FISH ENTER THE ARK ? — NOAH 
ON THE WIDE WASTE OF WATERS. — HOW LONG HE WAS IN THE 
ARK. — FAIR WEATHER. — THE DOVE SENT OUT. — THE ARK ON 
ARARAT. — THE DAY NOAH LEFT THE ARK: — HOW LONG HE 
LIVED. — HOW MUCH % COMFORT NOAH WAS TO HIS FATHER. — 
PIOUS PARENTS ARE A GREAT BLESSING. — THE ARK A TYPE OF 
CHRIST. 



CONTENTS. ix 

VIII. 

The Deluge, or the Great Storm and Flood. 139 

HOW OLD THE EARTH WHEN FLOOD CAME. — HOW MANY PEO- 
PLE ON IT. — THE YOUNG VERY WICKED THEN. — MORE EXCUSE 
FOR WICKEDNESS THEN. — MUCH VIOLENCE PREVAILED. — SOME 
PARTS OF OUR COUNTRY SIMILAR NOW. — NO PRISONS BEFORE THE 
FLOOD. — PEOPLE LIVED LONGER AND HAD MORE TIME TO BE- 
COME WICKED. — NOAH THE ONLY GOOD MAN WHEN FLOOD CAME. 

— IN WHAT. YEAR WAS FLOOD. — COMMENCED THE SIXTH DAY 
OF NOVEMBER. — THE DREADFUL CONSTERNATION OF THE WICK- 
ED. — "FOUNTAINS OF THE GREAT DEEP." — THE INHABITANTS 
FLEEING FROM THEIR HOUSES, CLIMBING HILLS, TREES, AND 
MOUNTAINS. — NONE LEFT BUT THOSE IN THE ARK. — DANGER- 
OUS TO INCUR THE DISPLEASURE OF GOD. — GOD WILL TAKE CARE 
OF THE RIGHTEOUS. — THE DELUGE A TYPE OF THE DESTRUC- 
TION OF THIS WORLD. 

IX. 

The Beautiful Rainbow . . . .154 

THE FEAR OF ANOTHER DELUGE. — GOD SET THE BOW IN THE 
CLOUD AS A PROMISE. — A REMARKABLE SIGHT THEN AND NOW. 

— NOAH'S FEARS QUIETED. — HIS SONS DOUBTED. — WHAT HAM 
THOUGHT. — NO FLOOD SINCE. — WHAT A BOY ASKS HIS FATHER. 

— WHAT THE RAINBOW IS MADE OF. — MADE BY THE LIGHT AND 
RAIN-DROPS. — THE PHILOSOPHICAL EXPLANATION. — THE TEACH- 
ER AND PRISM. — WHY THERE WAS NO RAINBOW BEFORE THE 
DELUGE. — HOW MUCH REASON WE HAVE TO BELIEVE GOD. — 
HOW THOUGHTLESS MANY PEOPLE ARE. 



X CONTENTS. 

X. 

Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the Three Fathers 
of Mankind 169 

THREE SONS OF NOAH. — WORKED AT FARMING. — THEIR CHIL- 
DREN AND CHILDREN'S CHILDREN. — HAM NOT SO GOOD AS HIS 
BROTPIERS. — HIS FATHER MAKING WINE. — THE FIRST INSTANCE 
OF DRUNKENNESS. — HOW HAM MADE FUN OF HIS FATHER. — 
GOOD CONDUCT OF HIS BROTHERS. — NOAH DISPLEASED WITH 
HAM. — VERY WICKED TO TREAT PARENTS WITH DISRESPECT. — 
REV. PHILLIP HENRY TO HIS SONS. — HAM MOVED AWAY. — HE 
WAS THE FATHER OF THE AFRICAN RACE. — SLAVES AND SLAVE- 
SHIPS. — THE EXAMPLE OF FATHERS. — S1IEM THE FATHER OF 
THE ASIATICS, AND JAPHETH OF THE EUROPEANS. — SHEM AND 
JAPHETH SHARED A BLESSING. — HAM. — BAD PRINCIPLES LEAD 
TO RUIN. — YOUNG MEN IN OUR PRISONS. — THE YOUNG MAN IN 
SOUTH CAROLINA. — HAM'S DAUGHTERS AS BAD AS THE SONS. — 
THE PIOUS MOTHER'S DAUGHTER IN A BALL-ROOM. — "HONOR 
TKY FATHER AND THY MOTHER." 

XI. 

The Toiver of Babel . . . . .188 

THE FIRST WORK OF ART AFTER THE FLOOD. — A PERSEVER- 
ING PEOPLE. — NOAH THE ONLY OLD MAN. — A COLONY REMOVE 
TO SHINAR. — THERE THE FIRST BRICKS WERE MADE. — A TRAV- 
ELLER'S REPORT. — BEGAN TO BUILD A CITY AND HIGH TOWER. 

— WHY THEY WANTED TO BUILD A TOWER. — THEIR PRIDE AND 
VANITY. — SUCH PRIDE AND VANITY NOW AMONG YOUNG AND OLD. 

— HOW MEN MAKE THEM A NAME. — GOD STOPPED THEIR WORK 
AND SCATTERED THEM ABROAD. — HOW. — SPEAKING DIFFER- 
ENT LANGUAGES. — THE FARMER AND SPANIARD. — THE RAILROAD 
CONTRACTOR. — THE GREAT CONFUSION. — SCENE IN A SCHOOL- 



CONTENTS. XI 

ROOM. — OBLIGED TO SEPARATE. — GREAT SIZE OF THE TOWER. — 
ONLY ONE LANGUAGE SPOKEN THE FIRST TWO THOUSAND YEARS. 

THE SIN OF BEING VAIN AND PROUD. — WE STILL SUFFER FROM 

THE PRIDE OF THE BABEL BUILDERS. — VALUE OF GOOD CHAR- 
ACTER. 

XII. 

Abram as a Boy and Young Man- . . 210 

THE CITY OF UR. — ITS INHABITANTS WORSHIP THE HEAVENLY 
BODIES. — HEATHEN IDOL-SHOPS. — SIN OF WORSHIPPING THE SUN 
AND MOON. — THE FRENCH BOY WORSHIPPING THE SUN. — THERE 
TERAH HAD A SON, ABRAM. — AN AMIABLE BOY. — HE WORSHIPPED 
GOD WHEN HIS OWN PARENTS WORSHIPPED THE HEAVENLY BOD- 
IES. — INFLUENCE OVER Hf S PARENTS. — DEATH OF HIS BROTHER 
HARAN. — HIS MARRLVGE TO A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG LADY. — 
* MOVED AWAY FROM UR. — A RESIDENCE IN UR BECAME UNPLEAS- 
ANT. — SETTLED IN HARAN. — NAHOR AND WIFE FOLLOWED THEM. 
— SICKNESS AND DEATH OF TERAH. — NEW DUTIES DEVOLVED ON 
ABRAM. — HIS BUSINESS WAS FARMING AND CATTLE-RAISING. — 
A PROMINENT MAN IN HARAN. — CONTINUES GOOD AND TRUE. 

XIII. 

The Strange Command to Abram . . 223 

ABRAM COMMANDED TO LEAVE HIS COUNTRY. — DID NOT KNOW 
WHAT FOR. — HAD A PLEASANT HOME. — PREPARED TO GO, NOT 
KNOWING WHERE. — HIS NEIGHBORS LAUGHED. — HIS GREAT 
FAITH. — SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS OLD WHEN HE STARTED. — TOOK 
LOT WITH HIM. — JOURNEYED TO SHECHEM, AND GOD'S PROMISE 
THERE. — MOVED AGAIN AND SETTLED NExlR BETHEL. — ONCE 
MORE MOVED. — WHY HE MOVED SO OFTEN. — THE FEARFUL 
FEARFUL FAMINE IN CANAAN. — LOVE NOR MONEY COULD NOT 



Xll CONTENTS. 

BUY FOOD. — CASES OF RICH MEN SUFFERING. — ABRAM RESOLVES 
TO GO TO EGYPT. — DID NOT COMPLAIN. — EGYPTIANS WORSHIPPED 
CATS, DOGS, AND OTHER ANIMALS. — POSITION AND PROGRESS OF 

EGYPT. — ABRAM TOLD A LIE. — A SUSPICIOUS CHARACTER. 

THE GERMAN PEDLER. — PHARAOH SIEZES ABRAM'S WIFE. — DIS- 
COVERS THAT SHE IS NOT ABRAM'S SISTER, AND BRINGS HER 
BACK. — PHARAOH BEHAVES WELL. — LIES LEAD TO DIFFICULTY. 

— ABRAM SENT AWAY. — RETURNED TO BETHEL. — DIFFICULTY 
WITH LOT. — DESCRIPTION OF A STRIFE BETWEEN HERDMEN. — 
LOT MOVED TO SODOM. — GOOD MEN SIN. — ALL'S WELL WHEN 
MEN TRUST GOD. 

XIV. 

The First War . . . . . .246 

ABRAM WENT TO LIVE AT MAMRE. — GOD'S PROMISE. — THERE 
WAS MACHPELAH. — THE MOTHER OF CONSTANTINE. — A LONELY 
COUPLE. — WAR IN THE VALE OF SIDDIM. — CHARACTER OF THE 
FIGHTING KINGS. — SLIGHT CAUSES OF WAR. — WHAT A WRITER 
SAYS. — " THE GRASSHOPPER WAR." — LESS REASON FOR THIS 
WAR.— FIVE KINGS AGAINST FOUR. — MARCH TO SIDDIM. — THE 
INVADERS CONQUER. — SODOM IS TAKEN AND LOT CARRIED AWAY 
CAPTIVE. — SOME FLED TO THE MOUNTAINS. — A CUSTOM. — A 
VILLAGE SACKED IN KOORDISTAN. — A MAN FLED TO MAMRE AND 
TOLD ABRAM THAT LOT WAS TAKEN. — ABRAM RESOLVED TO FIGHT 
FOR LOT'S RECOVERY. — A GOOD MAN MAY WAR IN SELF DEFENCE. 

— HE MARCHES WITH THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN SER- 
VANTS. — A SHORT BATTLE IN DAN. — ABRAM CONQUERED. — JOY 
IN SODOM. — AN EASTERN CUSTOM. — ABRAM' S RETURN. — LOT AT 
HOME. — THE HAVOC OF WAR SINCE. — THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND 
MILLIONS SLAIN. 



I. 

STOEY OF THE CKEATION. 

THERE WAS a time when God dwelt 
alone ; there was no other being in ex- 
istence. Then this beautiful world, with its 
countless objects of interest and value, was not 
made. There was no light to shine upon any 
" nook or corner," but " darkness was upon 
the face of the deep." 

But the time came when God determined to 
perform the great work of creation. The very 
first verse in the Bible tells us about it. "In 
the beginning God created the heavens and the 
earth." It was nearly six thousand years ago 
that he did this. He had always existed him- 
self; but, for some reason, he did not make the 
2 



14 STORY OF THE CREATION. 

earth we inhabit, and give the present form to it, 
until within six thousand years. 

But where did he begin to create ? perhaps 
some thoughtful one will ask. "What part of the 
world did he make first ? Well, these are fair 
questions, and it would be interesting to know 
just where he began. He might have ushered 
every part of it into being in a moment, by a 
single word. A single act of his will would have 
spread the firmament above, with the sun, moon, 
and stars taking their respective places, and cre- 
ated the earth beneath, with every living thing 
thereon. But he did not choose to do this. He 
was six days in performing this wonderful work. 
If you ask why he was six days instead of one, 
we answer, that he intended to measure thereby 
a week, and show us that we must labor but 
six days, and rest on the seventh. We read, 
" He rested on the seventh day from all his 
work which he had made. And God blessed 



STORY OF THE CREATION. 15 

the seventh day, and sanctified it ; because that 
in it he had rested from all his work which 
God created and made." Thus, long before 
God commanded us, in the Decalogue, to keep 
the Sabbath day holy, and work only six days 
of the week, he taught the same thing by ex- 
ample. Here, then, is a very important lesson 
to be learned from the time employed in cre- 
ating the world. 

Let us see, then, what was made first. We 
are told, in the third verse of the first chapter 
of Genesis, " And God said, Let there be light ; 
and there was light." This was the work of 
the first day, — all that God did. There was 
light made, though the sun was not yet cre- 
ated. How there could be light without a sun 
we cannot tell ; but God was able to make 
such light. It was probably a very pale light, 
just sufficient to separate night from day, per- 
haps like the faintest twilight now. For it is 



16 STORY OP THE CREATION, 

said, " And God divided the light from the 
darkness. And God called the light Day, and 
the darkness he called Night. And the evening 
and the morning were the first day." 

It is worthy of note, then, that light was 
made before anything else. It is well to re- 
member this, when we awake in the morning 
to its genial influence, and when it fades away 
into the darkness of night, — that the first thing 
God made on this earth was the light ; so that 
light is older than anything else that we know. 
It was first made, and we might conclude that 
it would be the last to perish, were it not dis- 
tinctly declared that " the sun shall be turned 
into darkness, and the moon into blood, be- 
fore that great and notable day of the Lord 
come." 

The first day had no sun, and the first 
night had no moon or stars. A day without 
a sun is a remarkable phenomenon ; and yet 



STORY OF THE CREATION. 17 

such was the first of the more than two mil- 
lion days that have been since God said, "Let 
there be light." 

But the morning of the second day dawned, 
having the same relation to that first week of 
time that Tuesday has to our weeks now. 
What did God make on the second day ? We 
are told in these words : " And God said, Let 
there be a firmament in the midst of the wa- 
ters, and let it divide the waters from the 
waters. And God made the firmament, and 
divided the waters which were under the fir- 
mament from the waters which were above 
the firmament, And it was so." Thus, at the 
command of God, the skies spread their canopy 
of blue above, though still the vaulted dome had 
not sun, moon, or stars. This was the work of 
the second day. Hence, the second part of the 
world which God made was the firmament. 

Another day passed. The morning of the 

2* B 



18 STORY OF THE CREATION. 

third day came, with its pale glimmering light. 
On this day, God made the dry land and the 
seas. That is, he caused the land — plains, 
hills, valleys, and mountains — to rise up from 
the depths of the waters, so that the latter were 
separated and formed seas. " And God called 
the dry land Earth ; and the gathering together 
of the waters called he Seas." On this day, 
also, he created the grass, trees, and whatso- 
ever the earth yielded. Mowers and fruits 
appeared for the first time, three days before 
man himself was made. It is important to 
remember that the fruits were created before 
man was, and even before the sun and moon 
were. 

Now stop and consider how much was cre- 
ated at the close of the third day, — light, 
firmament, land, sea, and vegetation. No liv- 
ing creature is yet made. Neither is there a 
sun to rise and set. There is nothing to walk 



STORY OF THE CREATION. 19 

upon the land, nothing to swim in the sea. 
The earth is but half made. 

The fourth day was signalized by the crea- 
tion of the heavenly bodies. " And God made 
two great lights ; the greater light to rule the 
day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he 

made the stars also And the evening 

and morning were the fourth day." How 
grand must have been the spectacle of the glo- 
rious sun coming forth to be the " king of 
day"! Then it was day indeed, — the new- 
made heavens and earth irradiated with its 
refulgent beams ! How changed must every- 
thing on the face of the earth have appeared 
beneath its dazzling light ! And what a dif- 
ferent night that must have been, when the 
moon commenced her radiant circuit, and the 
stars first came forth to watch as sentinels in 
the sky ! Then it was day and night like ours. 

On the morning of the fifth day there was 



20 STORY OF THE CREATION. 

a sun to rise. There had been no sunrise on 
the previous four days, because there was no 
sun. The fifth day was ushered in by its ris- 
ing glories. For the first time, it gilded the 
eastern hill-tops as it came up on its daily 
march through the heavens. This was the 
day on which God created the fish of the sea 
and fowls of the air, — the first living crea- 
tures on earth. Whatever lives in the sea, 
whether fish or other animals, was made, of 
course, on the fifth day. The work of cre- 
ation was now almost done. Another day 
would add the finishing stroke. 

The sixth day dawns. The second time the 
sun lifts its golden gates, to shine upon" the 
completion of God's works. Nothing remains 
to be done, but to create such animals as live 
on the land, " the beast of the earth after his 
kind, and cattle after their kind, and every- 
thing that creepeth upon the earth after his 



STORY OF THE CREATION. 21 

kind," together with " man in his own image." 
This greatest work of all — the creation of 
man — was reserved for the last. The earth 
was finished, and fitted up for the abode of 
man, before man was made. This was both 
wise and necessary. So God made man last 
of all, and gave him " dominion over the fish 
of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and 
over every living thing that moveth upon the 
earth." 

" And the evening and the morning were 
the sixth day." 

Such was the work of creation, as it is related 
in the first chapter of Genesis. It was a very 
great work, and yet the young reader will scarce- 
ly conceive how great, unless we help him to 
understand somewhat the extent of the globe. 
What we can see of the universe is only a small 
part of what it is. For more of it cannot be 
seen with the naked eye than is seen. Indeed, 



22 STORY OF THE CREATION. 

the largest telescope, which makes distant objects 
seem near, and brings to view what is too far 
distant to be seen with the naked eye, can show 
us only a fractional part of the solar system. 
Now, to understand how great was the work of 
creation, we must stop and look at this subject, 
as astronomy sets it before us. Perhaps the 
reader is studying geography; but this teaches 
you nothing except what pertains to this small 
planet we inhabit, — the Earth. It tells you 
nothing about Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, the Sun, 
Moon, &c, except that such heavenly bodies 
exist. But you will see from this that the earth 
we inhabit is only a small planet, while a great 
multitude of larger orbs exist in space. Now 
geography tells you only about this one little 
planet of ours, while astronomy unfolds to us 
the " vast creation round." I will try, then, 
to aid you in understanding more about the 
magnitude of the universe which God made. 



STORY OP THE CREATION. 23 

We live on the Earth, — a small planet, — 
which is eight thousand miles in diameter, and 
twenty-five thousand miles in circumference : 
so the geography tells you. It seems to us a 
very large globe of itself, when we look at the 
"Map of the World," which is a map of this 
planet only, — the Earth, — and see that it em- 
braces Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, with 
many islands of the sea. It seems large, too, 
when it is travelled over from country to coun- 
try, and continent to continent. If a man 
should go at the rate of twenty-five miles per 
day, from this time, it would take him about 
three years to travel round it. Now this ap- 
pears to us a very large globe indeed ; and yet 
it is small in comparison with many other orbs. 
Let us compare it with the sun. 

The sun does not look very large, as we view 
it from the earth. It appears to be about as 
large as a small carriage-wheel ; and probably 



24 STORY OF THE CREATION. 

many boys and girls have thought that a man 
could easily lift it, or that it might be dropped 
through one of the hoops which they roll in the 
street. But the sun is a great many times 
larger than the earth on which we live. It is 
ninety-five millions of miles from us, and there- 
fore it appears small. The farther off an object 
is, the smaller it will appear. If you should 
stand on the shore of the ocean, and watch a 
vessel as it sailed away upon its distant voyage, 
it would become smaller and smaller in appear- 
ance, until it seemed to be no more than a speck, 
and finally is wholly lost to the view. It is so 
with the sun and the stars. If the sun were as 
far away from us as the nearest star, it would 
appear to be no larger. But it is far enough 
now, — ninety five millions of miles ! If we had 
a railroad there, and the cars should run at the 
rate of twenty-five miles an hour, night and day, 
and no time be lost in taking in wood and water, 



STORY OF THE CREATION. 25 

it would consume about four hundred and thirty- 
five years to go there. If Methuselah, who 
lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years, had 
started upon such an excursion as soon as he 
was old enough to leave his father and mother, 
he would have had just about time enough to 
go and return in his lifetime. No wonder the 
sun appears no larger than a wheel! 

But you are impatient to know its size. As- 
tronomers have found that its diameter is eight 
hundred and eighty thousand miles, or. one 
hundred and ten times the diameter of our 
earth; while its circumference is two million 
seven hundred and sixty-four thousand six hun- 
dred miles, or one hundred and ten times larger 
round than the earth. Its surface contains 
about fifty thousand times more square miles 
than all the habitable parts of our little globe. 
While a man would travel round our earth in 
about three years, by travelling twenty-five miles 



26 STORY OF THE CREATION. 

a day, it would take him more than three hun- 
dred years to go round the sun, moving at the 
same rate. 

Such is the immense size of the luminary 
which God made on the fourth day of creation, 
to light our day. But it is only one of the 
heavenly bodies that are many times larger 
than the earth. Astronomers suppose that the 
myriads of stars that we see are suns to other 
systems, so far distant as to appear no larger 
than silver dollars. On a clear night, we can 
see about a thousand stars, every one of which 
is much larger than the sun which I have just 
described. The star nearest to the earth cannot 
be less than twenty billions of miles ; and astron- 
omers generally concede that it may be twice 
that distance. But no person can really appre- 
ciate this great distance of the nearest star, — 
twenty billions of miles ! For if we had a rail- 
road to the star, instead of the sun, and the cars 



STORY OF THE CREATION. 27 

should rush on twenty-five miles an hour, night 
and day, it would take nearly ninety-two million 
years to reach that star, — a period fifteen 
thousand times as great as that extending from 
the creation to the present time, and ninety-five 
thousand times as long* as Methuselah lived. 
Who can conceive of this immense distance ? 
That star must be a very large object to be seen 
at all so far. It must be very much larger 
than the sun. And still there are myriads of 
heavenly bodies so far off that the naked eye 
cannot behold them. The best telescopes bring 
thousands of them to view, while other thou- 
sands are too far remote for even the telescope 
to reach. Some of them are probably a thou- 
sand times larger than the sun. How many of 
these bodies exist in space, it is impossible to 
tell ; but in the Milky Way alone the telescope 
reveals twenty thousand times as many stars as 
the naked eye can behold. If the whole Milky 



28 STORY OP THE CREATION. 

Way contains as many stars, in proportion, as 
have been observed in certain portions of.it, it 
would comprise over twenty millions of them. 
If each one of these is a sun, as astronomers 
suppose, attended by at least fifty planets, then 
there must be the enormous number of a thou- 
sand millions of worlds in that lucid belt alone. 
Stop, and think of this. If the reader should 
begin to count that number, at the rate of sixty 
a minute, and stop not to eat or sleep, it would 
take him thirty-two years to count them. If he 
should stop to eat and rest, and work at count- 
ing only twelve hours a day, it would take him 
just twice as long, or sixty-four years. Here is 
almost a lifetime spent in counting the stars in 
the Milky Way alone. Yet here is not all the 
universe which God created. The best tele- 
scopes that were ever made can bring to view 
only a small part of the worlds that exist in 
space. 



STORY OF THE CREATION. 29 

The most distant star that can be seen with 
the telescope is supposed to be two thousand 
billions of miles away. Now, if a man could 
be transported to that far-off star, and from 
thence, with his telescope, look away two thou- 
sand billions of miles farther to another star ; 
and then should be carried thither, and look 
yet again into distant regions, — he would, 
even then, have a view of only a part of the 
work of creation. 

How great, then, is the universe which God 
made ! And how necessary the reader should 
remember that he can behold only a small part 
of creation! He can scarcely know what the 
world is, unless he thinks of what lies beyond 
the reach of his eye. 

We think the reader will say, in view of 

such stupendous works, there must be a God. 

Surely so many heavenly bodies cannot exist, 

and keep their places in such order, by chance. 

3* 



30 STORY OF THE CREATION. 

God must have made them, and placed them 
where they are. The sun itself, without whose 
genial light nothing would grow on the face 
of the earth, proves that God exists. It must 
have been made by a being who wanted to see 
this earth of ours covered with verdure and 
beauty. 

How great God must be ! Think of him as 
creating the millions of orbs that exist, with 
t all the living creatures that inhabit them, and 
all the objects that are seen within them, and 
doing it by simply commanding them to be. 
How great and powerful such a being must be ! 
And then he is everywhere present throughout 
the universe he has made. " Whither shall I 
go from thy spirit ? or whither shall I flee 
from thy presence ? If I ascend up into heav- 
en, thou art there ; if I make my bed in hell, 
behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of 
the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts 



STORY OF THE CREATION. 31 

of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, 
and thy right hand shall hold me." Yes, God 
is everywhere present, and fills the most dis- 
tant parts of creation ! 

How we should fear, reverence, and love 
such a being ! He is great and powerful 
enough to do all his will, and none can stay 
his hand. Surely a being who can call such 
a world as this into existence by his command, 
is able to overthrow and punish his enemies. 
The Bible says, "It is a fearful thing to fall 
into the hands of the living God," — that is, 
if we are wicked ; and is not here to be seen 
one good reason for this declaration ? The 
Creator of such works as we have surveyed 
deserves to be feared and reverenced. " Fear 
not them which kill the body, but are not able 
to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is 
able to destroy both soul and body in liell.^ 

He should be loved, also, not only for what 



32 STORY OF THE CREATION. 

he is in himself, but also for what he has done. 
He made our bodies, so curiously wrought, and 
put into them immortal souls, fitting us for 
enjoyment and usefulness. He filled the world 
with objects of beauty, to please the eye and 
bless the heart. He gave us the sun to light 
our day, and the moon and stars to cheer our 
night. And, in a word, he provided so much 
for our comfort and benefit, that we can think 
of nothing which he has left out of his works. 
He was good in creating the world, as well as 
great ; and such goodness demands our grati- 
tude and love. " Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy might." 



II. 

ADAM, THE FIKST MAN. 

ALL PERSONS are now born into the 
world helpless little infants; but Adam was 
never a baby. God made him a man at first, 
with all his powers in full exercise. He was 
created out of the dust of the earth ; hence his 
name, Adam, which means red-earth. He was 
made out of dust, that he might never be 
proud of his origin, — that he might always be 
humble and true. 

For some time Adam was the only person 
on the earth. How strange and wonderful all 
things must have appeared to him, when he 
first opened his eyes upon the new and beauti- 
ful world ! We can scarcely conceive of the 

c 



34 ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 

surprise with which he must have viewed the 
multitude of objects around him, — the birds, 
beasts, reptiles, flowers, fruits, and whatever 
else was created. Then, too, the thought that 
he was alone on the earth — that among all 
the creatures he beheld there was not one like 
himself — must have excited peculiar feelings 
in his heart. There* he was, the only man in 
the new-made earth, — no other person with 
whom he could converse and associate ! How 
lonely he must have been! It was once my 
lot to stand upon a broad Western prairie, 
where there was not a tree or shrub to be 
seen on either hand, as far as the eye ' could 
reach. Far, far in the distance, the land was 
bounded by the horizon, with no object to re- 
lieve the eye in the whole " wide circumfer- 
ence." Not even a bird could be seen in ttie 
air, nor a sound heard from any quarter. 
How lonely it seemed ! It was even painful 



ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 35 

to stand there, and reflect that many miles of 
level prairie-land lay between me and human 
habitations. "We were glad to leave the spot, 
and hasten where trees and cattle could be 
seen, and human voices heard. 

As Adam had never known the sweets of 
society, he might not have experienced this feel- 
ing of utter . loneliness ; yet it must have been 
strange, even to him, to be the only human 
being in existence. 

Adam lived in the Garden of Eden. It is 
not known exactly where that was, though 
there is some reason to believe it was in Asia. 
We read that " God planted a garden east- 
ward in Eden, and there he put the man 
whom he had formed.'' 

A little boy inquired, the other day, " What 
did Adam do in the garden?" The Bible 
tells us that his work was "to dress and 
to keep it." He was not to be idle there; 



36 ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 

God would not allow that. He loves industry, 
and frowns upon idleness. So Adam was re- 
quired to be busy in some useful employment. 
Among other things, he gave names to all the 
animals. 

" And out of the ground the Lord God 
formed every beast of the field, and every fowl 
of the air ; and brought them unto Adam, to 
see what he would call them; and whatsoever 
Adam called every living creature, that was 
the name thereof." 

Perhaps the reader has never thought be- 
fore where all the animals got their names. 
Some of them are very curious, and full of 
meaning; and some might ask, Why should 
such a name be given to such an animal? or, 
Who could think of so many appropriate names ? 
Well, here we have an answer to the last 
question. Adam named all the birds and the 
beasts. 




hyde: 



Garden of Eden. — Page 



ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 39 

We -have seen a fine picture of Adam in 
Eden, with all the birds and beasts around 
him to receive their names. There was the 
tiger and lion, the leopard and gazelle, the 
elephant, rhinoceros, and horse, with others 
too numerous to mention. A little bird was 
perched on his head, and another on his right 
shoulder, while a large number were fluttering 
around him, as if they wanted he should name 
them first. It should be remembered that the 
animals were not wild in Eden. The bear was 
as tame and mild as the cat or dog. The 
serpent did not bite or hiss. They did not 
prey upon each other, as now. The lion lay 
down beside the lamb, and the hawk and the 
hen lodged in the same tree. The weakest 
had no fear of the strongest ; and Adam could 
play with the rattlesnake as safely as he could 
with a kitten. We shall soon see what pro- 
duced the change, so that now the animals prey 

4 



40 ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 

upon each other, and many of them hide from 
the face of man. 

Eden was a very beautiful place. Every ob- 
ject that could please the eye and captivate 
the heart was there. Flowers bloomed in every 
path, and loaded the air with their fragrance. 
Birds warbled in every tree, and their music 
was wafted on every gale. Rivers of pure 
water flowed through the valleys in crystal 
tides, and vernal suns and showers imparted 
life and beauty to all around. Nor least of all 
was the peace and harmony that pervaded the 
blissful abode, — all living beings therein dwell- 
ing together in unity. Beautiful indeed must 
have been the abode of Adam, — lovelier than 
the fairest garden that was ever dressed since 
that day. 

Adam was created upright and holy, and 
God wanted he should remain so. To test his 
obedience, he forbade his touching "the tree 






ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 41 

of the knowledge of good and evil." He could 
eat of 6 very other tree in the garden, but this 
he must not touch. A severe penalty was 
threatened if he dared disobey : " In the day 
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." 
How kind God was to allow him to eat of 
every tree but one ! — to permit him to enjoy 
so great liberty in his sinless abode ! 

Adam was still alone ; and God saw that it 
was best that he should have a companion. 
He said, " It is not good that the man should 
be alone ; I will make him an help meet for 
him." So he took out one of Adam's ribs from 
his side, when he was fast asleep, and made 
a woman of it, to be the wife of this solitary 
man. 

The next thing we learn is that Adam had 
a lovely wife, whom he called Eve, which 
means, " the mother of all living" He ex- 
pected no such gift. He had no intimation of 



42 ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 

it until Eve stood before him in her beauty. 
His surprise and joy must have been very 
great. He had feasted his eyes upon many 
charming objects, but now the loveliest one of 
all stood before him. She too was created a 
woman at once : she was never a child. Hence- 
forth Adam was to have a companion in all 
his joys and sorrows. So they dwelt together 
in love and peace, — the first man and wife 
who ever lived. 

One day the serpent, " more subtle than 
any beast of the field which the Lord God 
had made," appeared unto Eve, and tempted 
her to eat of the tree which God had com- 
manded them not to touch. It is supposed 
that it was the Devil speaking to her from the 
mouth of the serpent. The Devil is called 
the " Old Serpent," so that we may under- 
stand that they mean one and the same thing. 

Eve was not disposed to listen to him at 






43 

first. She told him that God had commanded 
them not to eat of that tree, and threatened 
them with death if they disobeyed. But the 
serpent replied, " Ye shall not surely die." 
He knew better, and yet he told this lie to 
make the woman sin. It was the first lie ever 
told, and we ought to rejoice that it was told 
by the Devil, instead of a human being. For 
this reason the Devil is called the " Father of 
Lies." It is he who makes boys and girls lie 
sometimes, and the very thought of it ought 
to set them against the sin. As often as they 
lie, they do the Devil's work, and are like him 
in spirit. Think then, young reader, when 
tempted to utter a falsehood, that the Devil is 
the author of lies, and he who is untruthful 
has his evil spirit. 

At length, however, Eve yielded to the temp- 
tation of the serpent, and ate the forbidden 
fruit. She found that it was very pleasant 

4 * 



44 ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 

to the taste, perhaps more so than the fruit 
of any tree in the garden. Well pleased with 
her discovery, and forgetting or disregarding 
the command of God, she took some of the 
fruit and offered it to Adam. He might have 
been in another part of the garden when the 
serpent first approached Eve to deceive her, 
but he was now near enough to take food from 
his wife's hand. She urged him to taste, and 
he yielded to her request, and so became 
guilty with her in violating the Divine com- 
mandment. 

Not long after, when there had been time 
for reflection, their consciences began to trouble 
them. They knew and felt that they had dis- 
obeyed God. On this account they sought to 
hide from him, when they heard his voice " in 
the cool of the day." "And Adam and his 
wife hid themselves from the presence of the 
Lord God amongst the trees of the garden." 



ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 45 

But they could not. hide from the all-seeing 
God ; he brought them forth from their hiding- 
place, and punished them for their offence. 

For this act of disobedience, Adam and his 
wife were expelled from Eden, and the earth 
was entirely changed. Now God told them 
that they should be subject to " death and all 
its woes," and that their lives should be full 
of changes and trials. The earth too, in con- 
sequence, began to yield thorns and thistles, 
which never grew in the garden ; and the 
beasts became wild, and many of them fero- 
cious. What a change for one sin to make ! 
It shows how sacred God's commandments are. 

Think of Adam and Eve now, as the only 
pair living in the earth, that is cursed for their 
sin. Perhaps they live in some rude hut which 
they have built on some sunny hill-side, where 
the now cold, bleak winds do not blow so 
wildly. They are obliged to toil and sweat to 



46 ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 

procure sustenance from the earth. Early and 
late they labor for their daily food. Sickness 
and pain are now their lot, with many other 
ills of life. Around their humble abode the 
wild beasts prowl, and beneath the flowers of 
the wood and field the now poisonous serpent 
lies coiled. The fearful roar of the lion and 
the howl of the wolf are heard nightly around 
their dwelling. There is danger now on every 
hand; and the danger is increased by the ab- 
sence of all weapons of defence. Adam has 
nothing with which to defend himself and wife 
but a club that he might have cut from the 
forest. There were no guns or knives at that 
early day. And his labor on the soil was far 
more wearisome, because he had no imple- 
ments of husbandry, except such as he made 
of wood. If he had a plough, hoe, and shovel, 
they must have been wooden, since he had no 
iron of which to make them. 



ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 47 

How changed their condition ! It must have 
been a very hard lot for them; and, as they 
looked back upon what they were in Eden, 
many a tear of grief must have rolled down 
their cheeks. Milton, the prince of "poets, 
represents Eve as lamenting in the following 
language, when she bade adieu to Paradise, and 
we think he set forth the true feelings of her 
sighing heart : — 

"Must I thus leave thee, Paradise ? thus leave 
Thee, native soil? these happy walks and shades, 
Fit haunt of gods ? where I had hope to spend, 
Quiet, though sad, the respite of that day 
That must be mortal to us both. O flowers, 
That never will in other climate grow, 
My early visitation, and my last 
At even, which I bred up with tender hand 
From the first opening bud, and gave ye names, 
"Who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank 
Your tribes, and water from the ambrosial fount ? 
Thee lastly, nuptial bower, by me adorned 
With what to sight or smell was sweet, from thee 



48 ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 

How shall I part, and whither wander down 
Into a lower world, to this obscure 
And wild? How shall we breathe in other air 
Less pure, accustomed to immortal fruits'?" 

It was not long, however, before their soli- 
tary home was made brighter by the gift of a 
babe. God gave them a son, and they called 
him Cain. Afterwards they had another son 
born to them, and they called him Abel. The. 
eldest of these sons caused them excessive 
anxiety and sorrow, as we shall show in an- 
other place. Other sons and daughters were 
born to them, of whom we know much less 
than we do of Cain and Abel. 

Adam lived to be a very old man. The 
reader thinks the infirm old man of eighty or 
ninety years is very aged. But think of one 

Who is NINE HUNDRED AND THIRTY YEARS old ! 

Such was the age of Adam when he died. 
More than nine times as old as the most aged 



ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 49 

person now living ! He could look back over 
eight or nine hundred years, to the days of his 
childhood, and recall events as vividly as if 
they occurred but a score of years before. 
He lived just half as long as it has been since 
Christ was born, — eighteen hundred and sixty 
years. An old man indeed ! We should like 
to have seen him. 

But the time had come for Adam to die. 
He might have lived forever in Paradise, if 
he had not sinned. He was not subject to 
death until he disobeyed God, and partook of 
the forbidden fruit. Then he was assured 
that death would remove him hence, sooner 
or later. From that time he knew that he 
must die, and now the time had come. Per- 
haps he had not a true idea of what death 
was, since he had seen no one die a natural 
death. The dead body of his son Abel, who 
was murdered by Cain, was brought home, 



50 ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 

and he gazed upon it. But he had seen no 
one lie down to die by disease or the infirm- 
ities of age. A mystery, therefore, must have 
hung round the death-bed. 

Doubtless the family were apprised of his 
approaching death, and gathered around his 
couch to listen to his last words of counsel. 
Some of his children lived remote from him ; 
but the summons to the old man's bedside 
was obeyed. Some of them, too, were old 
themselves. Seth was eight hundred years of 
age, and Cain, if living, was still older. It 
must have been a scene fit for the skilful art- 
ist to paint, — the old man of nine hundred 
years closing his eyes in death, and his sons 
and daughters standing around in solemn woii- 
der! It was both a great and sad event in 
the family. 

He died. The oldest man then on the 
earth was straitened for the grave. His chil- 



ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 51 

dren followed him to his last resting-place, 
and were the first fatherless ones in the world. 
A great breach was made in the ranks of man- 
kind when Adam died. 

There are some important truths to be 
learned from this account of the first man, 
which the reader should not fail to heed. 

We see that curiosity may lead to very bad 
results. A youth is sometimes curious to wit- 
ness a play in the theatre, so he resolves to 
go once. Once seeing does not satisfy him, so 
he goes again. Now he cannot stay away, and 
he continues to go until he is ruined. An- 
other has a desire to look into a gambling- 
saloon. He only wants to see what is done 
there. He goes in, and looks, and finally 
resolves to try a game himself. He tries, 
and keeps trying, until he becomes a gam- 
bler. Another still is tempted by the sparkling 
wine-cup. He sees others sip, and he wants 

5 D 



52 



ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 



to taste himself. So he tastes once, twice, 
thrice, — and then there is no stopping. He 
goes down to a drunkard's grave. In all 
these cases curiosity ruins, as it did in the 
case of Eve. She wanted to know how the 
forbidden fruit tasted. For a time she was 
more prudent than curious, and obeyed God. 
But finally she became more curious than 
prudent, and tasted — and was ruined. 

It is no excuse for sin, that others tempt 
us. Eve tempted Adam by offering him the 
fruit, so that he tried to shuffle off the blame 
upon her, when God called him to an ac- 
count. "The woman whom thou gavest to 
be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I 
did eat." And then Eve endeavored to fasten 
all the blame on the serpent, by saying, " The 
serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." But it 
was of no avail. They were both guilty, and 
both had to suffer the curse of God. So it 



ADAM, THE FIRST MAN. 53 

is always. Boys who steal apples, or swear 
and lie, because they are led on by others, 
are just as wicked. When Oscar Holt went 
to the pond contrary to his mother's com- 
mand, because he could not withstand the 
sneer of Ralph Hayes, who said, " You are 
always tied to your mother's apron-strings," 
he was just as guilty of disobedience as he 
would have been if he had gone without that 
sneer. 



III. 

CAIN, THE FIEST BAD BOY. 

HOW STRANGE it is that the first boy 
ever born into the world was a bad one ! 
Yet it was so. Cain was the first boy that 
ever lived, and he became a murderer, — he 
murdered his own dear brother! We should 
scarcely believe it if the Bible did not say so, 
because the crime is so great. It is not often 
that the most wicked men now-a-days murder 
their own brothers. If they take the lives 
of other men, they spare their loved ones at 
home. But this first boy — Cain — slew his 
brother, when he was angry. 

The earth was only a few years old when 
Cain was born. His parents were Adam and 



CAIN, THE FIRST BAD BOY. 55 

Eve, who lived in the Garden of Eden until 
God expelled them for eating the forbidden 
fruit. He was born soon after his father and 
mother were turned out of Eden, though we 
know not exactly where. 

His mother was much pleased with her 
new charge, — the baby Cain ; and the very 
fact that he was the first babe she ever saw 
was enough to make her joyous. If the young 
reader had never seen a very little child only 
a few weeks or months old, what a curiosity 
it would be ! How eagerly you would hasten 
to see the wonderful little creature, knowing 
as yet only just enough to smile ! How often 
you would talk about it to your playmates 
who had never seen one, and how much 
would be said in the village about the new- 
comer, by both old and young, who had never 
enjoyed the sight ! But this was not the 
reason of his mother's joy. She rejoiced be- 

5* 



56 CAIN, THE FIRST BAD BOY. 

cause she thought lie promised to make a 
great and good man. She supposed that God 
would raise him up to do much good ; and 
therefore she called him Cain, — a name that 
signified he would be a remarkable man. 

There is no doubt that Cain was taught 
about God in very early life, since his father 
and mother feared him and desired to serve 
him. After learning such a lesson about the 
sad consequences of disobedience as they had 
from being sent away from Paradise, they 
would have been likely to converse much with 
their son in regard to obeying God. Perhaps 
his mother often told him, with tears of sor- 
row, of the happy hours she enjoyed in Eden 
before she disregarded the Divine command- 
ment and ate the forbidden fruit. Had she 
not disobeyed, she might have continued to 
dwell in that beautiful place, where there was 
no pain, sorrow, or misery, and where ever- 



CAIN, THE FIRST BAD BOY. 57 

blooming flowers and the sweet songs of birds 
gladdened the eye and ear. What a lesson 
from her own bitter experience to impress 
upon the heart of her child ! There is no 
doubt that she was the more careful to teach 
him to obey God, on account of this sad and 
painful part of her own life. 

Yet he was never a good boy. We say 
never j because there is no evidence in the Bible 
that he was ever good, while there is some 
evidence that he was always bad. In the 
third chapter and twelfth verse of John, the 
Apostle declares that " Cain was of the wicked 
one," and this implies that he never tried nor 
wanted to serve God. Then, too, his mother 
named her next child Abel, which means van- 
ity; that is, he would never be a source of 
joy and comfort to his parents. This implied 
that Cain had disappointed her hopes, so that 
she expected no more good from a son. 



58 CAIN, THE FIRST BAD BOY. 

Moreover, he became a bad man, as we have 
said ; and this is pretty good evidence that 
he was a wicked boy; for it is generally true 
that bad boys make bad men. 

It is probable that Cain was what we should 
call now an ugly boy. He was not simply 
peevish, fretful, and cross, but he was worse. 
He had strong passions, and he allowed them 
to rage without restraint. He was revenge- 
ful and malicious. He was determined to 
have his own way, whether it pleased his 
parents or not. Unless all this were true of 
him, he never would have killed his brother. 
There must have been angry passions, a stub- 
born will, and a revengeful, spiteful disposi- 
tion, in such a murderous heart. 

Cain grew up and became a farmer. His 
younger brother Abel was a shepherd, whose 
business it was to watch the sheep on the 
hills and in the valleys. Abel was a better 






GAIN, THE FIRST BAD BOY. 59 

boy than Cain. He proved much better than 
his mother expected, while Cain turned out 
far worse. Abel had a mild and gentle dis- 
position, was affectionate and obedient, and 
even in childhood was disposed to serve God. 
He was one of those kind and loving lads 
whom everybody admires ; while Cain was 
one who is universally disliked. 

One day these two brothers were in the field 
together. Perhaps Abel was tending the flocks 
near by where Cain was tilling the soil, " and 
Cain talked with Abel his brother." The 
story leads us to believe that they talked 
about the great favor with which God regard- 
ed Abel. Cain became angry by the conver- 
sation, and gave vent to his spite. He had 
often been angry before ; indeed, he had in- 
dulged for a long time the most bitter hatred 
against his brother, so that it did not take 
much of a spark to rekindle his wrath. " And 



60 CAIN, THE FIRST BAD BOY. 

it came to pass, when they were in the field, 
that Cain rose up against his brother, and 
slew him." Now he was a murderer of the 
worst class. His hands were red with a 
brother's blood. 

" But why did Cain hate his brother so ? " 
I think the reader will ask. "Why should 
he want to take his life ? " 

If his parents had been partial to Abel be- 
cause he was the better boy, and treated him 
kindly, while they disliked Cain and treated 
him unkindly, this might have caused him 
to be revengeful and wicked. But we read 
of no such partiality. The parents appear to 
have loved them both. Both were dealt with 
in a tender way. 

" Why, then," you will ask again, " did he 
want to kill his brother ? " 

The answer is given in the Bible, and it 
shows that Cain must have been very, very 



CAIN, THE FIRST BAD BOY. 61 

wicked. In the First Epistle of John, third 
chapter and twelfth verse, this question is 
put and answered: " Not as Cain, who was 
of that wicked one, and slew his brother. 
And wherefore slew he him ? Because his 
own works ivere evil, and his brother's right- 
eous " How strange ! Hate and kill him 
just because he is good ! Can it be that men 
are ever so wicked as to despise and injure 
others on account of their goodness ? Yes, 
it was true of Cain, and it has been true of 
many others since his day. There are many 
wicked persons at the present day who are 
bitter against churches and good enterprises, 
and if you ask me, " Why is it so ? " I can 
only answer, " Because their own works are 
evil, and their pious neighbor's righteous." 
This is the most wicked class of persons that 
live. 

What a terrible blow to the parents! One 



62 



CAIN, THE FIRST BAD BOY. 



son a murderer, and the life of the other vio- 
lently taken ! As his lifeless remains were car- 
ried home, and laid in their habitation, how 
deep must have been their anguish ! 

Think, too, that the first death in the world 
was not occasioned by disease, but by violence ! 
The first human being that ceased to live 
was stricken down in wrath by a murderer's 
hand ! 

There is some evidence to believe that Cain 
tried to conceal the body of Abel after he 
had killed him. He was alone with him in 
the field, and thought that no eye saw him 
strike the fatal blow. Like the wicked man 
who would steal from his neighbor's field, he 
forgot that the eye of God was upon him. 
It is told of a wicked father, that he went 
into a neighbor's field to steal, leaving his 
little boy at the bars by the road-side. The 
father stopped after he entered the field, and 



CAIN, THE FIRST BAD ROY. 63 

looked around in every direction to see if any 
person was near to witness his theft, when his 
little son, who had been taught in the Sabbath 
school, " Thou God seest me," exclaimed, 
" Father ! father ! there is one way you have n't 
looked." His father started with some sur- 
prise, and then looked towards his son as if 
to inquire which way. " Look up, father ! 
Look up, father ! " added the lad. He knew 
that God would see his father steal, if no one 
else did, and he would have him turn his 
eyes towards the skies. 

So Cain forgot that the eye of the great 
God was upon him ; and he was soon startled 
by his voice saying, " Where is Abel thy 
brother ? " 

What reply do you think the young mur- 
derer made ? Do you suppose he confessed 
his guilt, and pointed to his dead body? No. 
He was so hard-hearted and sinful that he 

6 



64 CAIN, THE FIRST BAD BOY. 

sought to conceal his crime by a lie. Not 
content with taking his brother's life, he add- 
ed to murder the sin of lying. 

"J know not: am I my brother's keeper?" 
he replied. He 4 ought to have been his 
"brother's keeper." He was the eldest, and 
he ought to have watched over and cared 
for the younger children in the family. He 
was guilty because he did not. 

But God knew it all. He saw him strike 
down Abel with a felon's hand. " And he 
said, What hast thou done ? the voice of thy 
brother's blood crieth unto me from the 
ground." 

Then he pronounced a curse upon him, 
and declared that he should be " a fugitive 
and a vagabond in the earth," meaning there- 
by that he should be driven away from his 
home and become a friendless wanderer, with 
whom no mortal would associate, and whom 



CAIN, THE FIEST BAD BOY. 65 

all would hate and reproach. Cain knew that 
henceforth he would be homeless and friend- 
less, and that all persons would hate him and 
wish to see him die, and he exclaimed, " My 
punishment is greater than I can bear." He 
said, " Every one that findeth me shall slay 
me." It is probable that he began to realize 
the exceeding guilt of his offence, and knew 
that every one would say that such a murderer 
ought to die, and perhaps would try to slay 
him. On this account God set a mark upon 
him, "lest any finding him should kill him." 
We are not told what the mark was, nor is 
it necessary for us to know. It was some- 
thing that showed to all who saw him that he 
must not be slain, though he was a murderer. 
With this mark upon him, Cain went forth 
to wander in the earth. We are not told that 
he returned home to see his father and mother 
after he slew Abel. There is no doubt that 



66 CAIN, THE FIRST BAD BOY. 

he feared to see them, — that he did not wish 
to look them in the face. 

The record informs us that he wandered 
away, " and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the 
east of Eden." The word Nod means simply 
vagabond, so that the passage does not assert 
that there was a country by that name. All 
that it means is, that he went away into the 
region east of Eden, and there lived as a vag- 
abond, an unprincipled, miserable man. 

Cain must have suffered very much from 
the fear of man, although he bore a mark that 
would save him from a violent death. From 
the time God inquired, " Where is Abel thy 
brother ?" his conscience seems to have trou- 
bled him to some extent. Its power to make 
him wretched probably increased as he went 
forth a wanderer to meet his lonely fate. 

It is related of an eminent member of Con- 
gress, who killed another member in a duel 



CAIN, THE FIRST BAD BOY. 67 

some years ago, that his conscience troubled 
him so fearfully thereafter that he was afraid 
to be alone A gentleman met him at a hotel 
in a Southern city, and the duellist asked him 
to lodge in the same room with him, confess- 
ing that he was afraid to sleep in a room 
alone. The gentleman consented to keep him 
company, but spent a sleepless night on ac- 
count of the troubled mind of the duellist. 
He said that, when the wicked man was asleep, 
he would start up in bed and shriek out, as 
if to frighten away evil spirits; and then he 
would call out the name of the man he killed, 
as if it were a terror to him. He would roll 
and toss from one side of the bed to the other, 
in great distress of mind, both when he was 
awake and when asleep. His fellow-lodger de- 
clared that he never beheld such a scene in his 
life, and never desired to pass such another 
night. 



68 CAIN, THE FIRST BAD BOY. 

Cain was not troubled by his conscience so 
much as this ; yet we have reason to believe 
that it caused him to be wretched, so that 
wherever he went he was a miserable man. 

Nothing is known about the close of Cain's 
life, though he probably died, as he had lived, 
godless and unrepentant. Where he was when 
he died, and how he closed his eyes in death, 
is unknown. Whether he ever repented his 
sins, and sought the forgiveness and favor of 
God, is not revealed. It would gratify our 
curiosity to know about these things ; but God 
has not seen fit to please us in this way. 
The silence of the Bible, however, on these 
points, leaves us to conclude that he never 
became a good man. 

If the reader has taken particular notice of 
the events in this narrative, he * has learned 
the following things : — 

Children sometimes cause their parents much 



CAIN, THE FIRST BAD BOY. 69 

sorrow. How many tears Adam and Eve must 
have shed over the reckless conduct of Cain! 
There was no earthly possession they would 
not have parted with to have been spared that 
anguish. The very thought of his parents' 
unhappiness ought to have been enough to 
restrain his sinful passions. Is it not strange 
that bad boys do not think more about the 
grief they bring upon their parents ? Yes, it 
is doubly strange. If they bore such love for 
them as they ought, we think they would 
oftener forsake their evil ways. 

A bad temper should be controlled. Cain 
had a bad disposition, and he might have 
made it better by watch and culture. If he 
had curbed his temper, instead of giving it 
loose reins, when he was tempted, he might 
have become better than he was. But bad 
boys are very apt to be angry when there is 
little need of it, and then they care not what 



70 CAIN, THE FIRST BAD BOY. 

they do. Professor Webster was angry when 
he killed Dr. Parknian, as he confessed before 
he was hung. If his temper had not been 
excited, he would not have murdered him. 
But when he was angry he did not think, nor 
care, whether a hard blow would kill him or 
not. Perhaps it was so with Cain. At any 
rate, we learn enough to show us how dan- 
gerous it is to let the passions rise. If anger 
will drive one on recklessly to the blackest 
crimes, then it should be kept under bit and 
bridle. The Scriptures have much to say 
upon this subject : " He that is slow to anger 
is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth 
his spirit, than he that taketh a city." "Who- 
soever is angry with his brother without a 
cause, shall be in danger of the judgment." 

A little restraint in the beginning will save 
much wickedness and sorrow in the end. If 
Cain had rebuked his temper, when he began 



CAIN, THE FIRST BAD BOY. 71 

to be angry with his brother, he never would 
have become a murderer. Perhaps it would 
not have required much effort at first to con- 
trol his passions. But instead of this, he al- 
lowed his anger to burn, and to wax hotter 
and hotter, until it was well-nigh impossible 
to govern it. A leak in a dam may be 
stopped with a child's finger at first; but if 
allowed to run on and increase, it will finally 
carry away the dam, and possibly deluge a 
whole village below. So anger, that may be 
easily checked in the beginning, may ruin a 
man in the end. 

Some children are very much like Cain. 
They are not kind to their brothers and sis- 
ters. They call them hard names, and some- 
times strike them hard blows. Often the 
eldest son in the family, who ought to watch 
over his younger brothers, conducts like Cain, 
so far as to neglect and leave them exposed 
to dangers. ' 



IV. 

THE FIKST CITY. 

THE ACCOUNT of the first city ever built 
is very brief. It is found in the fourth 
chapter of Genesis, seventeenth verse, and 
reads as follows: "And he builded a city, 
and called the name of the city after the 
name of his son, Enoch." 

Cain built this city, and named it after his 
son, doubtless, because he thought so well of 
him. It was a very singular name to give to 
a city, and presents a strange contrast with 
that of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Lon- 
don, and Paris. We are told nothing about 
it except what we find in the above short pas- 
sage of Scripture. We can judge, however, 



THE FIRST CITY. 73 

something about it, from what we know of 
Cain, and of the times in which he lived. 

Some writers think that Cain built a city 
because he was afraid of his enemies. His 
descendants were very wicked, with a few ex- 
ceptions, and there was much violence among 
them. He was more afraid of his foes, too, 
because of having murdered his brother. If 
he built a city, where he might gather his 
best friends around him, he would feel com- 
paratively safe. The city, too, he could sur- 
round with a deep ditch, or a high wall, for 
defence, so that enemies would find it diffi- 
cult to enter it. 

But my young readers must not think that 
the city which Cain built resembled the cities 
of the present day. It probably did not look 
much like Boston or New York. It was built 
before the deluge, and when the people had 
not made many discoveries and inventions. 



74 THE FIRST CITY, 

They had not the tools to work with that are 
now used. They did not know so much about 
the materials for building as they do now. 
It is not probable that they had any bricks 
at that time, nor that any one knew how to 
frame houses, as carpenters frame them at the 
present day. A few hundred years later, very 
splendid cities were reared. Ancient Jerusa- 
lem was a very wealthy and magnificent city. 
The Jewish temple was here, and it cost many 
millions of dollars. David himself left over 
one hundred millions of dollars for this temple 
alone. Here was the royal palace of Melchis- 
edec, and many other costly and beautiful 
abodes. But the city of Enoch could not 
have been at all like this. 

The houses that Cain built might have been 
made of logs, or perhaps of a wooden frame, 
plastered with mud. In this way dwellings 
were made in the early ages, and it is the 



THE FIRST CITY. 75 

way of making them in some countries now. 
Or they might have been made of mud or 
clay. Job speaks of " houses of clay " (Job 
iv. 19), and we know that such abodes were 
common, and continue to be in some parts of 
the world. At the present day many people 
in the East Indies have no other habitations. 
A traveller describes these dwellings as he 
saw them in Bengal and Ceylon. In Ireland, 
too, they are numerous. We call them " mud 
cabins," or "huts." And should I say they 
are found in New England, would the reader 
believe me ? Whether he will or not, it is 
true. They are not built of mud so often as 
they are of wood. Along our railroad lines 
we see many of them when the roads are 
building. Occasionally we find them on the 
outskirts of villages. We call them " shan- 
ties." 

It was not very difficult for Cain to build 

7 



76 THE FIRST CITY. 

such a city, nor would it take very long. 
It would not require many tools, nor very 
skilful workmen. An ignorant, degraded 
Irishman can put up a " shanty." A few 
days' labor, and such materials as he can 
draw from the woods and shovel from the 
earth, will give him a place to live in, with 
a large family. There is many a " shanty" 
in New England that did not cost over five 
or ten dollars, and they serve to shelter the 
tenants through a series of years. They have 
no drawing-rooms and parlors, and furnish 
no business for paper-hangers and painters. 

When we think, then, of the city of Enoch, 
which Cain built, we must remember that 
it was not like modern cities. If we can 
array before the mind a large collection of 
Irish " shanties" or "mud cabins," in which 
people lived without much order or neatness, 
we shall have quite a correct idea of Cain's 



THE FIRST CITY. 77 

city. We doubt if there was a single par- 
lor in it. If it was surrounded with a wall, 
it was probably made of mud. Anybody 
could make such a wall. We have seen 
little boys and girls rear various sorts of 
mud structures in the road, showing as much 
skill and ingenuity as was necessary to rear 
a wall of this kind around the city of Enoch. 
It is known that such walls were built around 
some of the early cities. Another way of sur- 
rounding houses and cities, so as to prevent 
the approach of enemies, was by a hedge of 
thorns. This is common in Eastern countries 
now. It is said that such a hedge protects 
Jericho at this day. The prickly-pear and 
other thorny shrubs will grow into a hedge 
that neither men nor cattle can break down. 
Perhaps Cain planted such a hedge about his 
city, which could have been easily done. 
Before any habitations were reared, men 



78 THE FIRST CITY. 

lived in the caves of the earth. Some tribes 
have continued to live so since. The Holy 
Land aboiyids in very large caves, sufficiently 
ample to 'shelter a shepherd with a large flock. 
We are told that, after the destruction of 
Sodom, Lot aqd his daughters abode in such 
a cave. Modern travellers say that many 
people in Barbary and Egypt live so still. 
Buckingham, who travelled among the Arab 
tribes, says that in a town on the east of 
the river Jordan all the inhabitants "live in 
grottos, or caves excavated in the rocks." 
The Horites, who dwelt on Mount Seir, are 
supposed to have lived in caves. 

The Saviour alludes to the mud houses of 
which we have spoken, in several places. 
When he said, "And every one that heareth 
these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, 
shall be likened unto a foolish man, whieh 
built his house upon the sand; and the rain 



THE FIRST CITY. 79 

descended, and the floods came, and the 
winds blew, and beat upon that house, and 
it fell; and great was the fall of it." As 
this kind of habitations were frequently swept 
away by violent storms, it is supposed that 
the Saviour referred to them in the language 
quoted. It is known also that thieves and 
robbers were wont to break through the sides 
of such dwellings to steal, and it is thought 
that Christ refers to this fact when he says, 
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon 
earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and 
where thieves break through and steal." 

This, then, is the view of the first city 
ever built on the earth, — a large collection 
of huts or shanties, where people live in 
a very humble, and perhaps degraded way. 
Many a man in modern cities is rich enough 
to buy up half a dozen such places as the 
city of Enoch. 

7* 



80 THE FIRST CITY. 

If we think of Cain's city, in contrast with 
New York or London, we see how mankind 
have advanced in knowledge and refinement. 
A shanty beside a splendid mansion shows 
what art and wealth can do. So a city like 
Enoch, in contrast with a modern one, ex- 
hibits the progress that has been made in art 
and science, and all things else that elevate 
the human family. 

How much more comfort both the young 
and old have at the present day, than people 
did in the city of Enoch! Nearly all the 
people in every village have better homes and 
better society. Their habitations are far more 
comfortable, and the means of enjoyment 
within them are more numerous. There are 
some streets in our great cities where for- 
eigners live, in which there are as few com- 
forts as there were in Cain's day. The peo- 
ple huddle together, ten and twenty in a 



THE FIRST CITY. 81 

.single room. The children do not know what 
it is to have a nice good home. But this is 
true of only a small portion of the inhabi- 
tants. Generally, there is a good share of 
enjoyment to be found in the dwellings, and 
children can sing truly, " Home, sweet, sweet 
home ! " How much they have to be thankful 
for! And for all this they are indebted to 
that Being who made and preserves them ! 



V. 

ENOCH, OK THE MAN WHO NEYEK DIED. 

ENOCH NEVER died/' said Mr. 
Graves to his son Arthur, one Sabbath, 
as they were studying the Sunday-school lesson. 

" Never died ! " exclaimed Arthur with much 
surprise. " Is he living now ? " 

" He is not living on earth now, but he 
still lives in heaven. If he were yet alive on. 
the earth, he would be over five thousand 
years old." 

" In what year of the world was he born ? " 

" In the year 623, about one thousand years 
before the flood, and his father's name was 
Jared." 

" But I should like to know," continued 



ENOCH, OR THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED. 83 

Arthur, " how it was that he went to heaven 
without dying. I thought everybody died." 

"Well, I will tell you all about it. It is 
indeed remarkable that there should be a per- 
son in heaven who never died, and it is worth 
knowing about. When Enoch was born, his 
father was one hundred and sixty-two years 
of age. Adam was his father's great-great- 
great-grandfather, so that Enoch claimed him 
as quite a near relative, and was very familiar 
with him. We have reason to believe that 
Adam taught Enoch more good lessons than 
his own father Jared did. We do not know 
much about his father, as very little is said 
of him ; but we know that Enoch grew up to 
be a good man, one of the very best who ever 
lived. This fact leads us to believe that Adam 
had something to do with his instruction. 

" There is no doubt that Enoch was a 
thoughtful, noble boy, fond of listening to 



84 ENOCH, OR THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED. 

stories about what had happened in the world, 
as well as counsels concerning God, who made 
all things. Adam could tell him the story of 
creation, and all about the Garden of Eden, 
when there was no human being there but 
himself and wife, with a great many other 
things equally interesting. He must have had 
a great fund of useful information and moral 
lessons to impart, since he was nearly six 
hundred and fifty years of age when Enoch 
became old enough to hear and profit by his 
counsels. 

" When Enoch became a man, as we have 
said, he was good. There was no other per- 
son so good around him. It was a time of 
great wickedness in the earth, and it was rare 
to find a truly good man. But Enoch was 
such, in spite of the fearful corruption around 
him. Many youth in similar society, at the 
present day, are ruined. They are lured away 



ENOCH, OR THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED. 85 

from the path of virtue, and become intem- 
perate, dishonest, and mean. But Enoch was 
not influenced by his ungodly acquaintances and 
associates. He never went with them into the 
paths of folly and vice. He knew and felt 
that there was a God, and that to him he was 
accountable for all that he said and did. On 
this account, he had no heart to engage in the 
follies and practise the vices which others did. 
The class of youth and young men who are 
wild, unprincipled, and vicious, are those who 
think little or nothing about God, and some- 
times sneer at those who do. When we know 
that a boy grows up to manhood, correct in 
his behavior, and of high and noble aims, we 
may very properly conclude that he has thought 
about God, and his duty to serve him." 

" Where does the Bible tell so much about 
Enoch ? " inquired Arthur. He had been ac- 
customed to read his Bible, and to attend the 



86 ENOCH, OR THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED. 

Sabbath school, but he did not recollect of read- 
ing much about Enoch. 

His father replied to him by saying : " There 
is not much said about him, it is true ; but 
what little is said expresses a great deal. If 
you will take your Bible, and turn to the 
fifth chapter of Genesis, you will think that 
it is only a chapter of names, some of them 
very singular and difficult to speak. Perhaps 
you have never read this chapter on this ac- 
count. I have known persons to pass over 
it, because it contained so many dry, hard 
names. But if you will persevere, and read 
along to the eighteenth verse, you will find 
something interesting about Enoch. You will 
learn in two or three verses who his father 
was, when he was born, how he grew up a 
good man, and went to heaven without dying. 
In a single verse we read, ' Enoch walked 
with God, and he was not; for God took 



ENOCH, OR THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED. 87 

him.' Now this one passage is very expres- 
sive. If you should go into a burial-place, 
and read this inscription on a gravestone, it 
would awaken your interest, though nothing 
more was said of the dead man. You would 
infer at once that he was a good man, per- 
haps a very remarkable person, and you 
would be anxious to learn something more 
about him. ' Walked tvith God ! ' You would 
repeat it over and over, and say, ' Of course 
he was a good man, whom everybody hon- 
ored, and he has gone to heaven.' That 
phrase, ' walked with God,' is a very plain 
one, so that we can easily understand it. 
Only two persons living before the flood are 
spoken of in this way, Enoch and Noah. 
Others might have been good, but they were 
not so eminently pious as these two men. 
' To walk with God,' is to be agreed with 
him; for the Scriptures say, 'How can two 

8 



88 ENOCH, OR THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED. 

walk together except they be agreed ? ' And 
if a person agrees with God, he regards his 
will, and strives to do it. Suppose a father 
should take his little son by the hand, and 
walk forth into the fields, over hill and dale, 
among the trees and wild-flowers, watching 
the birds and beasts, and conversing about 
things that fill them both with delight. How 
happily the trusting son moves on, yielding 
himself up to his father's guidance, obeying 
every command he utters, and believing every 
word that he says. He is full of joy and 
hope, because he is agreed with his father. 
He does not oppose his will, but is disposed 
to do as his father would have him. He con- 
fides in him, too, and does not ask whether 
his father is leading him in the right way, 
for he believes that he is. He has no doubt 
of his desire and ability to take care of him ; 
so he walks along, feeling that he is safe as 



ENOCH, OR THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED. 89 

long as his kind father is with him. Exactly 
so did Enoch walk with God. He was so 
agreed with him, that he was not disposed to 
act against his will. He walked in his com- 
mandments as trustingly and confidingly as a 
little child walks with his father. Hence only 
the very best men and women can be said ' to 
walk with God.' For this reason, we know that 
Enoch was as good a man as ever lived." 

" But how do you know that he did not 
die ? Where does it tell you ? " interrupted 
Arthur. 

" I was going to say, that, although we are 
not directly told so in the text of which I 
am speaking, yet I think it is implied. The 
language is peculiar: 'He tvas not, for God 
took him.' Still, I do not rely upon this pas- 
sage alone, but I take the words of the great 
Apostle in connection with it, where he says, 
in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, ' By faith 



90 ENOCH, OR TH£ MAN WHO NEVER DIED. 

Enoch was translated that he should not see 
death ; and was not found, because God had 
translated him ; for before his translation he 
had this testimony, that he pleased God.' 
Here we are very plainly told that he did 
not die, but was translated to heaven with- 
out tasting death. This passage also confirms 
what we have said about his walking with 
God. We are told that God translated him 
on account of his faith. As only good men 
possess great faith, then Enoch must have 
had the character which we have ascribed 
to him. 

" We do not know exactly how he went to 
heaven, nor whether his neighbors saw him 
conveyed thither. Some have thought that 
he went as Elijah did, the account of which 
we have in the Second Book of Kings, second 
chapter and eleventh verse. There we are 
told that Elijah, in the presence of Elisha 



ENOCH, OR THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED. 91 

and fifty other persons, went to heaven in a 
chariot and horses of fire. He was old and 
just ready to die, and God sent a chariot for 
him, that he might not pass through the grave. 
Perhaps Enoch went in a similar way, though 
I am inclined to think that his passage was 
not so grand and glorious. The account 
rather indicates that he passed up .to glory 
silently and unseen. It says, 'And he was 
not, for God took him ; ' as if he was missed 
one day, and upon inquiry and search it was 
found that he had passed into the other 
world. It is probable that his friends and 
neighbors did not see him go, and that his 
unexpected disappearance created great excite- 
ment and talk. If no one saw him ascend, 
it is natural to suppose that the whole com- 
munity were alarmed by his disappearance, 
and turned out to search the fields and 
woods, ponds and streams, for his body. 

8* 



92- ENOCH, OR THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED. 

There had been only two deaths among the 
human family at that time, so that death 
was less familiar to the living than it is now. 
Adam died fifty-seven years before Enoch, 
and Abel was killed by Cain long before that ; 
and these two instances of mortality are all 
that are recorded before the translation of 
Enoch. . Adam was the only one who had 
died a natural death ; and now Enoch was the 
first to go to heaven without dying. If the 
death of Adam was strange and mysterious 
to those who saw him die, then the transla- 
tion of Enoch must have been stranger and 
more mysterious still, if they saw him ascend. 
How glorious and awe-inspiring must have 
been the sight! A saint, known for his love 
to God and man, taken up into heaven with- 
out enduring the pains and agonies of death ! 
Nothing could be more wonderful and im- 
pressive ! 



ENOCH, OR THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED. 93 

"Perhaps you may inquire why God does 
not take good men now to heaven without 
dying, as he did Enoch. It is supposed that 
the wicked people by whom Enoch was sur- 
rounded needed such kind of proof of a future 
state of being, — that they did not believe in 
the soul's immortality, — and therefore such 
a translation would deeply impress them. It 
would be likely to cause them to believe the 
truths relating thereto which Enoch had 
taught them." 

"Did Enoch preach?" asked Arthur. 

" Yes ! And it is worth remembering that 
he was the first minister. His name, Enoch, 
signifies teacher. Jude informs us that i Enoch 
also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of 
these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with 
ten thousands of his saints, to execute judg- 
ment upon all, and to convince all that are 
ungodly among them of all their ungodly 



94 ENOCH, OR THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED. 

deeds which they have ungodly committed, 
and of all their hard speeches which ungodly 
sinners have spoken against him.' Here we 
are told that Enoch preached to the wicked 
around him of the resurrection, the judgment, 
and the future punishment of sin. We should 
infer from the language, that he was a bold 
and fearless preacher, who reproved men for 
their sins without regard to the hard things 
they might say against him. Here, again, we 
may find a reason for his going to heaven 
without dying ; for surely the wicked, who 
had derided him for his saintly instructions, 
would begin to reflect upon these things when 
they found that God took him in .this trium- 
phant way. It was well suited to make them 
inquire whether, after all, they had not de- 
spised and rejected a true prophet of God. 

" Enoch lived three hundred and eight 
years on the earth with Adam, and three hun- 



ENOCH, OR THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED. 95 

dred years after his son Methuselah was born. 
Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, and Jared 
lived all the while he did ; and he was trans- 
lated sixty-nine years before the birth of Noah. 
He was three hundred and sixty-five years old 
when God took him, which was in the nine 
hundred and eighty-seventh year of the world. 
He did not live half as long as those who 
were born before him, and he died four hun- 
dred and thirty-five years before his father." 

This narrative shows us that the lives of 
some men and women in the Bible, about 
whom little is said, may become interesting 
if we will but study the little that is told. In 
the case of Enoch, we have only two or three 
texts of Scripture to give us a clew to the life 
of the man, and yet his life was full of inci- 
dents and good instruction. When we put 
together the little that is said of him in dif- 
ferent parts of the Bible, it makes a beautiful 



96 ENOCH, OR THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED. 

and consistent life. This fact should incite 
the reader to study the Bible closely. We 
are taught to seek for its truths as for hid 
treasure. We are to work for it as the gold- 
digger does for gold. The more we study 
the Bible, the more we shall see in it to ad- 
mire. 

We see, too, that a man may be a true 
saint, though living in the midst of evil-doers. 
No one could be more unfavorably situated 
than Enoch was to cultivate holiness of heart. 
Wickedness abounded, and there were very 
few persons to sympathize with him in his 
belief and labors. He stood almost alone in 
that sinful generation. Yet, by his faith in 
God, he succeeded in maintaining a holy walk 
with him ; and before he was half as old as 
Adam was when he died, he became ripe for 
heaven. His trust in God enabled him to 
resist the wicked influences of the world, and 



ENOCH, OR THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED. 97 

to live godly when others were lured into sin. 
So it may always be. The reader will have 
no excuse for failing to love God. Though 
all others walk in the ways of sin, it is his 
duty to be good and true ; and he can if he 
will. " Where there is a will, there is a way." 



VI. 

TIE THEEE BEIGHT BEOTHEES. 

WHEN THE earth was about six hun- 
dred years old, a child was born in the 
house of Methusael, to whom the parents gave 
the name Lamech. Nothing is said about his 
boyhood, whether he was good or bad, but one 
circumstance leads us to believe that he was 
rather thoughtless and unprincipled. When he 
grew up to be a man, instead of marrying 
one wife only, as had been the custom, he mar- 
ried two. This was in direct opposition to 
the Divine will, and to his own convictions of 
right. At the present day, if a man marries 
more than one wife, he is punished for it. 
He is thought to be so wicked, that he is sent 



THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 99 

to prison with other offenders. Good people 
are unwilling to associate with him, and he is 
avoided and despised by them. 

Lamech was the first man who ever married 
more than one woman, so that he is the father 
of the sin of polygamy, which signifies having 
more than one wife. Since his day, the prac- 
tice has been very common in some countries. 
His descendants followed his example, and the 
consequence was, that some otherwise good 
men became guilty of -this sin. But God did 
not approve of the act, although for a while 
he suffered men to do so. In his word, he 
treats it as a heinous offence. 

In some heathen countries now, it is com- 
mon for men to have many wives. Some pub- 
lic officers among them have forty or fifty, 
and the Sultan of Turkey has about three hun- 
dred. How he manages to take care of so 
many I cannot tell , for it is true that one 



100 THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 

wife is more than some men take good care 
of. He must have a plenty of money, too, to 
feed and clothe such a family. Among the 
Mormons in our own country the men have 
more wives than one if they choose. The pres- 
ent • Mormon ruler of Utah has forty. 

You will see, then, that Lamech became the 
occasion of a great deal of wickedness. His 
example was contagious, and to this day it is 
followed. It shows that wicked example may 
have an influence over large numbers of people, 
and extend through many generations. How 
strange that any one should want to be wicked ! 

The names of Lamech's two wives were very 
beautiful. They were Adah and Zillah. If 
they were half as attractive as their names, they 
must have taken Lamech's heart by storm. 
Perhaps he loved them both, and knew not 
which to choose, and so took both of them to 
get out of the dilemma, without meaning to 



THE THREE BRIGHT RROTHERS. 101 

be very wicked before his God. But this 
is only guess-work. It is safest to conclude 
that he was no better than he ought to be, and 
that he had two wives because he was wicked. 

This Lamech had three bright boys, who ren- 
dered good service to mankind by their talents 
and labors. Their names were pleasant and 
musical. They were called Jabal, Jubal, and 
Tubal-Cain. That they were bright boys we 
know from the service they rendered to their 
fellow-men. A great many boys live, and grow 
up to manhood, without doing anything that will 
be remembered. No one is benefited by their 
labors. They make no mark on the world, and 
when they die they are soon forgotten. But 
Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain are remembered 
for what they did. It is five thousand years 
since they lived, and still their names are fresh 
on the page of history. 

Jabal appears to have been very industri- 



102 THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 

cms, and worked with his father on the land. 
His great delight, however, was in taking care 
of cattle and sheep. Boys are generally very 
fond of horses, cows, and other animals, and 
like to drive them to and from the pasture. 
We have known them to undertake this when 
they were quite too small to be trusted far 
out of sight. Jabal was one of this class, 
and his father gratified him by allowing him 
to do this kind of work. As he grew older, 
he made improvements in the way of taking 
care of cattle and sheep, and showed consid- 
erable ingenuity in doing it. We read that 
he "was the father of such as dwell in tents, 
and such as have cattle." This means that 
he was the man who invented tents to live 
in, so that a person could go far off with his 
flocks and herds, and be gone days and weeks 
before returning. Hitherto this had not been 
the way of feeding cattle. They had been 




Jabal tending Sheep. — Page 105. 



THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS; 105 

turned out for a single day only, without 
being tended by an individual; but now Jabal 
conceived the idea of going off to a great dis- 
tance, where better grazing could be found, 
and giving his time up to watch the flocks 
and herds, pitching his tent at night wherever 
he happened to be. He was the first shep- 
herd. Other people saw the advantages of this 
mode of feeding cattle and sheep, so that it 
came to be generally adopted. After Jabal, 
the patriarchs became shepherds, and many of 
their sons followed this vocation. Abraham 
was a shepherd, and lived in a tent, going 
about from place to place with his large and 
profitable stock. We may have some idea of 
the size of flocks and herds at that day, from 
the fact that Abraham and Lot agreed to take 
different directions in driving their animals, 
because the "land was not able to bear them." 
When Jacob left the farm of his uncle Laban, 

9* 



106 THE THEEE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 

with his herds, they must have been very nu- 
merous indeed; for we are told that the pres- 
ent which he sent his brother Esau consisted 
of five hundred and eighty head of different 
sorts. Abraham was a shepherd, and so were 
Moses and David, together with most of their 
children. Even daughters, in that age of the 
world, aided in tending the flocks. We are 
informed that Eachel, the daughter of Laban, 
kept her father's sheep (Gen. xxix. 9), and 
Zipporah, with her six sisters, had the care 
of their father Jethro's flocks (Exod. ii. 16), 
and he was a ~ prince. It was the custom for 
the father of a family, as Jacob, for instance, 
to spend the grazing season abroad, taking his 
family with him, and such furniture and kitch- 
en utensils as were necessary to make them 
comfortable. Their tents and furniture, with 
such provisions as they were obliged to carry, 
were conveyed on the backs of camels and 






THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS 107 

other beasts of burden, while the parents, chil- 
dren, and servants were all engaged in driv- 
ing the flocks and herds. The number of ani- 
mals was generally so large, that the assistance 
of several persons was necessary to drive them. 
At the time Jacob's son Joseph was sold into 
Egypt by his cruel brothers, the father was too 
far advanced in life to be abroad. The broth- 
ers were away tending their flocks, and the 
father was anxious to hear from them. Per- 
haps they had been absent many weeks, and 
it was quite natural that he should desire to 
learn of their welfare. So he sent Joseph, 
who had remained at home to render his fa- 
ther assistance, to learn where they were, and 
how they fared. It was when Joseph was 
absent on this errand that his merciless broth- 
ers sold him into bondage. 

This shepherd life, of which Jabal was the 
father, is still followed in some parts of the 



108 THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 

East. The Arabs are distinguished for this 
mode of life. They live wholly in tents, and 
move from place to place. A traveller de- 
scribes a company of this singular people as 
follows : — 

"First went the sheep and goat-herds, each 
with their flocks in division, according as the 
chief of each family directed ; then followed the 
camels and asses, loaded with the tents, furni- 
ture, and kitchen utensils; these were followed 
by the old men, women, boys and girls, on foot. 
The children that cannot walk are carried on 
the backs of the young women, or the boys and 
girls ; and the smallest of the lambs and kids 
are carried under the arms of the children. 
To each tent belong many dogs, among which 
are some greyhounds; some tents have from 
ten to fourteen dogs, and from twenty to thirty 
men, women, and children, belonging to them. 
The procession is closed by the chief of the 



THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 109 

tribe, whom they called Emir and Father 
(Emir means prince), mounted on the very 
best horse, and surrounded by the heads of 
each family, all on horses, with many ser- 
vants on foot. Between each family is a di- 
vision or space of one hundred yards or more, 
when they migrate ; and such great regular- 
ity is observed, that neither camels, asses, 
sheep, nor dogs mix, but each keeps to the 
division to which it belongs, without the least 
trouble. They had been here eight days, and 
were going four hours' journey to the north- 
west to another spring of water. This tribe 
consisted of about eight hundred and fifty 
men, women, and children. Their flocks of 
sheep and goats were about five thousand, be- 
sides a great number of camels, horses, and 
asses." 

But wherever we find this tent-life and shep- 
herd-care, we are to remember that Jabal was 



110 THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 

the author of it. He was therefore a benefac- 
tor of his race. It does not now seem like 
much of an invention, to contrive one of these 
movable tents ; but it must have been a matter 
of great interest at that early day. It shows 
that Jabal had considerable ingenuity, and that 
he was disposed to exhibit it in a way to 
benefit the world. 

Jubal, the brother of Jabal, had an ear for 
music from his childhood. There were no 
musical instruments then, since all the music 
that had been made for more than a thousand 
years was made by the voice. But Jubal some- 
how discovered that musical instruments could 
be made. What led him to this discovery we 
do not know; but he might have been amus- 
ing himself by some sort of recreation in which 
his inventive genius was exercised. We know 
that the Art of Printing and the Mariner's 
Compass originated in this way. A man in 






THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. Ill 

Holland was amusing himself by cutting let- 
ters on the bark of a tree, when it occurred 
to him that they might be transferred to blocks 
for the amusement of his children. In this 
little circumstance the Art of Printing had its 
origin. In like manner, some persons were 
once amusing themselves with a loadstone in 
a basin of water, when they observed that, if 
left to itself, it invariably pointed to the north. 
Out of this grew the invention of the Mari- 
ner's Compass. So Jubal may have been 
amusing himself in some way, when he dis- 
covered that instruments could be manufac- 
tured to yield sweet music. At any rate, we 
read that he "was the father of all such as 
handle the harp and the organ ; " that is, he 
was the inventor of these two musical instru- 
ments. Perhaps he did not invent any others ; 
and these two may have been all that were 
known for some time. Afterwards, we read of 



112 THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 

the timbrel, which was precisely such an in- 
strument as we see little Swiss and Italian 
girls use now in our streets, when they accom- 
pany their fathers with the hand-organ. It 
consists of a brass or wooden hoop, over which 
a skin is drawn tightly, while the hoop is hung 
round with little bells. This was the instru- 
ment which Miriam, the sister of Moses, took, 
after the passage of the Red Sea, and played 
on, while she danced with the women (Exodus 
xv. 20). The daughter of Jephthah, also, took 
the timbrel, and went forth to meet her father 
with dances, when he returned from his battle 
with the Ammonites (Judges xi. 34). It will 
be a pleasant fact for the young reader to re- 
member, whenever he sees one of these little 
travelling girls with a timbrel, that it is the 
same kind of musical instrument on which 
Miriam and the daughter of Jephthah played. 
We read of other musical instruments in the 



THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 113 

Bible, invented after the days of Jubal ; but 
to him must be accorded the merit of invent- 
ing the first one that was ever known. The 
harp and organ, very generally known and 
used, are the products of his genius. The 
harp, or lyre, as we call it often, did not differ 
much from the same kind of instrument now. 
The organ was another thing altogether. The 
organ now is a large, cumbersome affair, in its 
more expensive size requiring the services of 
several men for a week to set it up in the 
sanctuary. Some of them are so heavy as to 
require two horses to draw them, and their 
music is loud enough to be heard a long dis- 
tance. But the organ which Jubal made had 
no " pipes," " keys," or " bellows." It was 
nothing more than a " mouth organ," made of 
reeds, — what is sometimes called a " Pandean 
pipe." I expect that it resembled a harmoni- 
ca, which Dr. Franklin invented, more than 
10 



114 THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 

any other musical instrument now in use. 
Perhaps Dr. Franklin received some valuable 
hints, pointing to his invention, from the 
"organ" of Jubal. If this be so, the "harp" 
and " organ " which Jubal invented could not 
have been very finished instruments. In com- 
parison with the organ and piano of this day, 
they did not amount to much in the line of 
music. Perhaps a boy with a " corn-stock fid- 
dle," and another with a harmonica, might 
make as good and loud music. Still, Jubal 
must have the credit of making the first musi- 
cal instrument, no matter how imperfect it was. 
He probably tried, and tried, and tried, before 
he produced a " harp " or " organ " that would 
go to his liking. No doubt he was perplexed 
and greatly troubled many times, before he 
succeeded. But his perseverance triumphed ; 
and it shows that he had both a taste for 
music and talent for invention. 



THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 115 

Tubal-Cain, another of the three brothers, 
was probably the first blacksmith and copper- 
smith who ever lived. For we read that he 
was " an instructor of every artificer in brass 
and iron." It is supposed that "brass" is a 
term used to denote both this metal and cop- 
per, and that in this instance it refers to 
copper, since this metal was discovered before 
brass. There is no doubt that copper and 
iron were used in some shape, for weapons and 
utensils, before the time of Tubal-Cain ; but he 
was the first man who exhibited any ingenu- 
ity in working iron and copper, and who was 
able to teach others. He made it his busi- 
ness to manufacture weapons of war and im- 
plements of husbandry, so that from that time 
the trades of blacksmith and coppersmith have 
been followed by many. Perhaps the boy or 
girl who reads this may think that it was not 
a matter of much importance to invent iron 



116 THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 

utensils. But ask yourself how your mother 
would get along in her kitchen without these 
iron utensils, — spiders, kettles, shovel, tongs, &c. 
She would find it very difficult to keep house. 
And how would your father succeed without 
a shovel, spade, fork, hoe, axe, or any other 
of those implements that now aid him so 
much on the farm and elsewhere ? Yet all 
these things can be traced back to Tubal-Cain. 
Not that he invented all of them. But he 
was the first man who had ingenuity enough 
to work iron and copper up into useful ar- 
ticles, and teach others to do the same. On 
this account, he became quite a noted man 
in his day. His fame extended far and wide, 
and many went to him to learn the curious 
art. He pursued the business with a great 
deal of zeal and industry, and thought of little 
else but improvements in this kind of work. 
Here, then, we have a view of three bright 



THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 117 

brothers, who became famous in different de- 
partments of labor. It is not common that 
three boys in the same family distinguish them- 
selves so much as they did. We can scarcely 
find another instance of the kind in all past 
history. One of them invented the tent, and 
made the first one ever used, and also con- 
ceived and entered upon the shepherd's life. 
Another made the first musical instrument 
ever known, and thereby became famous in 
the art. And the third taught the world how 
to use those very common and useful metals, 
copper and iron. Here is the first tent-maker, 
the first musician, and the first blacksmith, in 
Lamech's family! This is more remarkable 
when we consider that Lamech was not a 
good man himself, and was not qualified to 
teach his sons to be very useful. He married 
two wives in the first place, and he afterwards 
admitted to them that he had killed a man, 

10* H 



118 THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 

and spoke in defiance of his fellow-men when 
his wives expressed the fear that he would be 
killed in return. We judge from this circum- 
stance that he was a fierce, rough, reckless 
father, who had little fear of God or man. 
Yet his sons became distinguished in worldly 
toils, although none of them were pious. They 
were industrious, persevering, and faithful in 
worldly callings, but neither of them served 
God. It was better that they should possess 
these qualities, though they were not pious, 
than that they should live without them. 
There are many persons around us who are 
very useful and beloved, although they are 
not the followers of Christ. They are like 
the amiable young man to whom Jesus spake, 
and said, " One thing thou lackest." They 
need only religion to make them the best ex- 
amples to follow. 

The lives of these bright brothers show us 



THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 119 

that it is best for boys to choose and follow 
the pursuit for which they are best qualified. 
One boy has a taste for farming, another for 
boot-making, another for the carpenter's sphere, 
and so on. This was the case with Lamech's 
sons. One of them had taste and talent for 
tent-making and cattle-driving, another for mu- 
sic, and another for blacksmithing. If Jabal 
had tried to be a blacksmith, he would not 
have accomplished much. If Tubal-Cain had 
attempted to make a harp or organ, he would 
probably have failed. And so Jubal would 
have done little at tent-making or the manu- 
facture of iron kettles. But when each per- 
severingly followed the vocation for which he 
had taste and tact, he succeeded. So it is 
now. Boys should endeavor to learn what 
they have most talent for. Then they will 
be most successful. 

How much more we should think of these 



120 THE THREE BRIGHT BROTHERS. 

three brothers, if to their brightness were added 
goodness or piety ! We do not mean by this 
that they were vicious ; for there is no evi- 
dence of that. But if piety were added to 
their good qualities of industry, energy, and 
perseverance, and to their talent for inven- 
tion, how much more we should respect them ! 
Piety always adorns the character, and when 
it has such qualities to adorn as these brothers 
possessed, it appears to great advantage. They 
served their fellow-men faithfully in secular 
business, and if they had served God with 
equal fidelity, they would have been as good 
as they were bright. 



VII. 

NOAH'S AEK, OE THE FIEST SHIP. 

riOV RESOLVED to save Noah and 
VJ his family when he determined to de- 
stroy the population of the earth, " But Noah 
found grace in the eyes of the Lord." The 
reason for this favor which God showed him 
is given in another passage : " Noah was a 
just man and perfect in his generation, and 
Noah walked with God." It is not known that 
either of his three sons, whose names were 
Shem, Ham, and Japheth, were pious, though 
some think they were, together with their 
wives. God might have saved them for their 
father's sake, and to accomplish the great pur- 
pose he had in view in respect to the future. 



122 NOAH'S ark, or the first ship. 

God commanded Noah to build an ark for 
the saving of himself and family, with such 
living creatures as he might bring into it. It 
would require a very large vessel to accommo- 
date two animals of every kind in the earth, 
with food enough to sustain them, and it would 
take a long time to build it. Noah did not 
know much of ship-building, but God could 
teach him so that in due time he could finish 
the great structure. 

The following is the size and form of the 
ark, as Noah was directed to build it : — 

" Make thee an ark of gopher-wood ; rooms 
shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it 
within and without with pitch. And this is 
the fashion which thou shalt make it of : The 
length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, 
the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height 
of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make 
to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it 



NOAH'S ark, or the first ship. 123 

above ; and the door of the ark shalt thou set 
in the side thereof; with lower, second, and 
third stories shalt thou make it." 

This is quite a plain description of the ark. 
It was to be three stories high, and built of 
" gopher-wood." Some think this " gopher- 
wood " was another name for " cypress," which 
was a very durable kind of material, abound- 
ing in that day and place. As there was no 
glass then, the window must have been made 
of some other material, or it might have been 
simply an open space covered with lattice-work. 
The best authority says that a common cubit 
is eighteen inches, though the Egyptian cubit 
was nearly twenty-two inches. If the ark be 
measured by the largest cubit, it would be five 
hundred and forty-seven feet long, ninety-one 
feet two inches wide, and forty-seven feet two 
inches high. You will see, then, that it was 
a very large ship, or rather floating edifice. 



124 noah's ark, or the first ship. 

It was not made for sailing, but to lie upon 
the water and float. It was shaped very much 
like a square box, with a sloping roof and flat 
bottom. If the bottom of it had been made 
like the keel of a ship, it could not have rested 
on Ararat without tipping over upon one side. 
It was capable of holding as much as several 
of the largest war-ships. If this be so, we may- 
well call it a mammoth vessel. Infidels say- 
that Noah could not have built so large a 
structure, and if he did, that it could not have 
floated upon the water through wind and 
storm. But this is a mistake ; for there have 
been two or three larger ships built since that 
time. 

Ptolemy, an old Egyptian ruler, built a ship 
so large that it looked in the distance like a 
floating mountain. It was about a hundred 
feet longer than the ark, though it may not 
have been as wide. Hiero built a still larger 



noah's ark, or the first ship. 125 

one, under the direction of Archimedes. It 
was like a splendid palace, having banquet- 
ing-rooms, baths, stables, artificial ponds and 
gardens, and a temple to Venus. It had a 
gymnasium, also, or a place for exercise, to- 
gether with a large library. It was richly 
furnished in every apartment, and gold and 
silver ornaments adorned many of its rooms. 
On the water it appeared like a huge castle 
that would hold thousands of persons. 

But in our own day, a larger vessel than 
the ark has been constructed in England. 
The reader has seen accounts of it in the pa- 
pers. It is called the " Great Eastern." It 
is six hundred and eighty feet long, which is 
one hundred and thirty-three feet longer than 
the ark ; about fifty feet deep, or three feet 
deeper than the ark ; while its width is eight 
feet less than that of the ark. The builders 
expect it will sail well ; and if it does, the 
11 



126 noah's ark, or the first ship. 

cavils of infidels about the ark being so large 
that it could not survive a gale of wind are 
exploded. 

Well, the ark was finished. Whether Noah 
employed all the one hundred and twenty 
years between the time God said to him the 
human family should be destroyed, and the 
time the deluge actually came, in building 
the ark, we do not know. How many people 
worked on it, we cannot tell ; or whether any 
but Noah and his three sons. We know that 
it was ready when the flood came. 

Here is evidence that Noah was a very good 
man. If he had not believed God, and earnest- 
ly desired to obey him, he never would have 
undertaken such a work as the ark. No one 
else believed that there would be a deluge, 
and all laughed at him for being so foolish as 
to prepare for a flood when no flood would 
come. Perhaps they called the great vessel, 



noah's ark, or the first ship. 127 

as they saw it from day to day, " Noah's 
Folly," because they thought it was a waste 
of time and money. There is no doubt that 
the old man (he was nearly five hundred years 
old when he commenced the ark, and six hun- 
dred when the flood began) was talked about 
more than any other person of that day. As 
people met by the wayside, or visited each 
other at their homes, the great theme of conver- 
sation would naturally be NoaKs preparation 
for the flood. The more gay and thoughtless 
pointed at him as a simpleton, and perhaps 
pronounced him crazy. A great deal of ridi- 
cule, sneering, and jesting was heaped upon the 
faithful man by those who did not fear God. 
But Noah withstood it all bravely, and re- 
buked the sins of the unbelieving around him. 
We are told that he was a " preacher of right- 
eousness ; " so that we have reason to believe 
he went forth and warned the people of the 



128 noah's ark, or the first ship. 

coming flood, and exhorted them to repent of 
their sins and turn to God. In this way Jonah 
did to the people of Nineveh, -when God threat- 
ened to destroy that city. Noah was faithful 
to do the will of God in this respect, as well 
as in reference to the ark. He did not care 
for their laughing and jesting over his work, 
so long as he would share thereby the favor 
and mercy of God. 

But the time came for Noah to enter the 
ark. God warned him when to enter, and to 
take with him "two of every sort" of " every 
living thing." Here is the account : — 

"And Noah went in, and his sons, and his 
wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the 
ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of 
clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, 
and of fowls, and of everything that creepeth 
upon the earth, there went in two and two 
unto Noah into the ark, the male and the fe- 



noah's ark, or the first ship. 129 

male, as God had commanded Noah. And it 
came to pass, after seven days, that the waters 
of the flood were upon the earth." 

One Sabbath-school scholar asked her teacher 
how the animals knew when to go into the 
ark. Perhaps the reader will make the same 
inquiry. Doubtless God taught them by in- 
stinct when to go in. This he could do as 
easily as he could create them. Some have 
thought that Noah was endowed with power 
to entice them in; but this is not very prob- 
able, since many of them were wild and sav- 
age, and far away too. It is more reasonable 
to suppose that God taught them to go in, 
and, at the same time, disposed the dangerous 
ones to be mild and gentle. 

The day on which Noah entered the ark 
must have been an exciting one in the neigh- 
borhood. The wicked around him had been 
dealing out ridicule, while he had worked on 
11* 



130 noah's ark, or the first ship. 

about his business. When they saw him leave 
his home, carrying with him all his worldly 
possessions that he would need, and followed 
by his sons and their wives, they must, at 
least, have thought him to be sincere. It 
must have looked to them as if he thought 
he should have no more use for his dwelling. 
If Jthey did not begin to grow serious then, 
we think they must when they saw the ani- 
mals coming, two by two, from different di- 
rections, to the ark. How swiftly the tidings 
of the strange spectacle must have spread! 
How eagerly the people must have hastened 
to behold the strange sight! Probably hun- 
dreds gathered near by the ark; and there, let 
us imagine, they stand in silent wonder and 
amazement, to see the animals enter. There 
come advancing from the forests, in stately 
majesty, elephants, camels, and other mighty 
beasts, two by two, attended by smaller ani- 






noah's ark, or the first ship. 131 

mals that dwell in the fields and woods. 
Even the terrible lion follows in the train, 
with his savage companion, and the fierce 
tiger and tigress, now more docile than ever, 
hasten after them. The hissing serpents, too, 
of every species, come crawling from their 
holes in the earth and rocks, and wind their 
way in pairs toward the ark. Through the 
air, also, the various kinds of birds are seen 
flying, some with gay plumage and sweetest 
song, joining themselves in couples, according 
to the commandment of God. Eapidly they 
fill up the ark, to await the coming storm. 
How strange and startling must have been 
the sight to the unbelievers who had smiled 
at Noah's folly ! As they saw the animals ap- 
proach, two by two, and enter the ark, they 
must have thought that Adam was right, and 
they were wrong. No doubt they ceased to 
scoff and ridicule, and began to look serious 
and thoughtful. 



132 noah's ark, or the first ship. 

But, to repeat what we have said in another 
place, though they might have kept up their 
courage while the animals were going into the 
ark, when the door of it was shut, and the 
heavens began to grow black with cloud and 
tempest, and the rain began to descend in such 
torrents as they had never seen before, they 
must have trembled for themselves. Though 
they might still have doubted whether it was 
the flood, they must have had their fears. 
Perhaps many cried out to God for mercy, 
confessing their wickedness in not believing; 
but it was too late to be forgiven. 

Some persons have asked whether any fish 
went into the ark. Probably not ; since the 
water that was death to other animals was life 
to them. There was no need of their going 
into the ark. Did all the fish live, then ? It 
is not probable that any of them lived, except 
two of a kind. God could easily destroy all 
but these. 



noah's ark, or the first ship. 133 

Perhaps a bright boy will ask, What became 
of Noah's grandchildren, the sons and daugh- 
ters of Shem, Ham, and Japheth ? It is said 
that Noah's sons and their wives went in, but 
no mention is made of their children. Hence 
we infer that they had none. 

Now think of Noah in the ark, with all the 
animals, upon the wide waste of waters, that 
has covered even the hills and mountains. 
There is not a speck of land that he can dis- 
cover from the window of the ark. Nothing 
but a vast ocean of water meets his eye on 
every hand. We can scarcely conceive of his 
feelings, as day after day he floated in his huge 
vessel over the ruins of the world. Knowing 
that every living thing was destroyed, by Di- 
vine wrath, he must have felt sad as he saw 
the desolation. At the same time grateful emo- 
tions swelled his bosom, in view of the good- 
ness of God in sparing himself and family. 



134 noah's ark, or the first ship. 

For a whole year, and ten or fifteen days 
more, Noah was in the ark, his time fully occu- 
pied with the care of the animals and relig- 
ious devotion. At one time, in order to learn 
whether the water was drying up, he sent out 
a dove, which soon returned because she found 
no land or tree on which to alight. This satis- 
fied Noah that the whole earth was still cov- 
ered with water. He waited seven days, and 
then sent forth the dove again, and she came 
back with an olive-leaf in her mouth. That 
leaf was proof that the water was subsiding. 
Again, after seven days more had passed, he 
sent out the dove, and she never returned, 
so that Noah knew the water was rapidly 
drying up. 

The reader should remember that it did not 
rain all the time Noah was in the ark. Forty 
days and forty nights was all. Then the storm 
ceased, the clouds dispersed, and the sun shone 



noah's ark, or the first ship. 135 

out in his glory. Probably it was fair weather 
during the remainder of the time. It would 
take a long time for so much water to dry up, 
if no rain fell after the forty days, and the 
sun shone clear and bright all the while. 

At length the ark rested on Mount Ararat, 
which is supposed to be a high mountain in 
Armenia. The reader can readily find Arme- 
nia on the map. It is a country where we 
have sent missionaries to preach the Gospel, 
as the inhabitants are heathen. Yet many days 
elapsed, after it rested on this mountain, before 
the waters were entirely removed from the face 
of the earth. 

Finally, the day arrived for Noah to leave 
the ark. What a happy day it was to him ! 
But how changed was the world ! Instead 
of freshness and verdure on hill and in valley, 
all was desolation. Destruction had left its 
blight upon every spot of land ; and now the 



136 noah's ark, or the first ship. 

earth lay before him, a vast ruin, unpeopled, 
barren, and silent as the grave. What a scene 
for the patriarch to behold ! 

No sooner did Noah and his family leave 
the ark, than he built an altar to the Lord, 
and offered sacrifices thereon. God had remem- 
bered him, and now he would remember God 
with a thankful heart. Henceforth he would 
devote himself to God's service with new zeal 
and faith. 

Noah lived six hundred years before the 
flood, and three hundred and fifty years after- 
ward. Two thirds of his life was thus spent 
in the Old World, and one third in the New. 
What an eventful life must his have been! 
In many respects, no one else ever had such 
a checkered experience. 

How many good lessons the reader may 
glean from this story ! Let us repeat some 
of them. 



noah's ark, or the first ship. 137 

How much comfort Noah was to his father! 
His father's name was Lamech, who named 
his son Noah, because he hoped he would be 
a source of consolation and joy to him. The 
name signifies " rest," or " comfort" Lamech 
did not die until five years before the deluge, 
so that he lived to enjoy the pious life of Noah, 
until the latter was nearly six hundred years 
old. Good children are always a comfort to 
their parents. They do more than words can 
tell to make them happy. We might call 
them Noahs, — "comforts." 

Pious parents are a great blessing. We 
have said that Noah's children may not have 
been pious; and yet they were saved. God 
knew that his instructions and influence in the 
family were good, and for this reason, prob- 
ably, if they were not religious, he saved 
them. The children of the wicked perished 
in the general ruin. It is generally true that 

12 



138 noah's ark, or the first ship. 

children are blest through the piety of parents, 
and they ought to be grateful for it. They 
should rejoice that they have parents who fear 
God, and who require their sons and daugh- 
ters to observe the Sabbath, attend public wor- 
ship and the Sabbath school, and do other 
things that promise well. 

The ark is a type of Christ. He is often 
called the " ark of safety." As Noah and his 
family, with two of every kind of animal, 
flocked to the ark to be saved, so sinners 
must go to Christ for a refuge. They are 
guilty of disobeying God, and a threatened 
judgment awaits them. Unless they go to 
Christ, and give their hearts to him, they 
will perish in the last day. If they continue 
unbelieving, and say, " There will be no judg- 
ment, or if there is, God will have mercy 
upon us," they will perish as surely as those 
did who derided Noah for his belief in a com- 
ing deluge. 



VIII. 

THE DELUGE, OE THE GEEAT STOEM AND FLOOD. 

WHEN THE earth was a little more 
than fifteen hundred years old, God 
said he "would destroy it. This was six hun- 
dred years after Adam died, and almost twenty- 
five hundred years before Christ was born. A 
good many thousand people were then living, 
men, women, and children. They were not 
scattered over a very large territory, and quite 
a multitude of them dwelt in the city of 
Enoch. Some have thought that there must 
have been nearly a million people on the face 
of the earth at that time ; but this cannot be 
known with any degree of certainty. 

The reason why God resolved to destroy the 



140 THE DELUGE. 

human family then, was on account of their 
gross wickedness. They had become very cor- 
rupt, so that all sorts of vice abounded. Both 
young and old had no regard for God, and 
no desire to be good. Parents were profane, 
vulgar, selfish, cruel, and vicious, and their 
children followed their example. It is prob- 
able that boys and girls were far more wicked 
then, at ten and twelve years of age, than 
they are now. They are sinful enough now, 
but they were worse then. We are not told 
exactly what wicked deeds they committed, 
but are assured they were so evil that God 
could not suffer them to live. Now, we say 
of one boy, " he tells lies ; " of another, " he 
steals;" of still another, "he is disobedient;" 
and so on through a great many sins. But 
we are told of the children before the flood, in 
common with the people generally, that " their 
wickedness was great in the earth," and that 



THE DELUGE. 141 

f 

"every imagination of the thoughts of their 
hearts was only evil continually." They ap- 
pear to have been about as bad as they could 
be. 

Perhaps there was more excuse then for the 
wickedness of mankind than there is now. 
For the ten commandments were not known 
so early. God did not give them to man 
until after the ark rested on Ararat, when 
the flood ceased. So far as we know, there 
was no command then to observe the Sabbath, 
or to honor father and mother, and none 
against stealing, lying, murder, and other sins. 
Doubtless they were made to understand, in 
some way, that these things were wicked; but 
they could not be so deeply impressed with 
their guilt as we who have the ten command- 
ments to direct us, as uttered by God himself 
on burning Sinai. There is less excuse for 
such flagrant sins now. 
12* 



142 THE DELUGE. 

Hear the declaration that is made concern- 
ing the wickedness of mankind at that early 
day: "The earth also was corrupt before God, 
and the earth was filled with violence. And 
God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it 
was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his 
way upon the earth." 

This language teaches that all the inhabitants 
of the earth were corrupt, so that God could 
not look upon them with any favor. They did 
not desire nor try to be good. 

There was much strife and violence, too. 
This is taught by the language, " the earth 
was filled with violence." That one word, 
"filled" shows that violence was very general. 
The earth was full of it. It abounded on 
every hand. There are some countries now, 
and there are some parts of our own country, 
where there is much less order and peace 
than there is in New England. Men carry 



THE DELUGE. 143 

deadly weapons, such as pistols and knives ; 
and when they get angry with one another, 
they shoot and stab each other without mercy. 
Many think it is not safe to travel in such 
regions without being armed with a pistol for 
defence. In this respect such parts of our 
own and other lands resemble the state of 
society before the flood. Then people fought, 
beat, and killed each other, probably, when 
the strife was occasioned by very small diffi- 
culties. They had no civil government and 
laws, as we have, to restrain the wicked. If 
we had no laws, and no public officers to ex- 
ecute them, and no jails in which to confine 
criminals, our land would be " filled " with 
violence. With all these things to terrify the 
wicked, there is a great deal of vice and crime. 
How much more there would be, if our laws 
were repealed and our prisons were torn down ! 
But none of these things, to restrain and 



144 THE DELUGE. 

punish wicked men, existed before the flood. 
There were no jails and houses of correction, 
no sheriffs and constables, no police and lock- 
ups, to frighten evil men from evil deeds. It 
is scarcely strange, then, that mankind grew 
worse and worse, until the earth presented a 
frightful scene of wickedness, so that God had 
to destroy it. 

At that time, also, people lived much longer 
than they do now, so that if they grew worse 
and worse, as the wicked do in our day, they 
must have become very debased, besides having 
a long series of years in which to corrupt 
others. It was true then as now, that " evil 
communications corrupt good manners ; " and 
consequently the man who lived nine hundred 
years could do much more injury than he who 
lives but ninety. Seth lived nine hundred and 
twelve years ; Enos, nine hundred and five ; 
Methuselah, nine hundred and sixty-nine ; Cai- 



THE DELUGE. 145 

nan, nine hundred and ten ; Jared, nine hun- 
dred and sixty-two ; Noah, nine hundred and 
fifty ; and others, from three to eight hundred 
years. A man could do a great deal of good 
or evil in so long a time. As nearly all were 
disposed to do evil, the amount of evil-doing, 
when God told Noah that the earth would be 
destroyed by a flood, must have been enormous. 

The account in the sixth chapter of Genesis 
seems to teach that there was only one good 
man on earth when God drowned its inhab- 
itants. Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, 
Enoch, and Lamech, all of whom were good, 
died before this time, leaving Noah the only 
righteous man among the thousands of wicked 
ones upon the earth. It is supposed that Me- 
thuselah, who was also righteous, and who 
lived longer than any other man, died the 
same year as the flood, before it commenced. 

The earth was one thousand six hundred 



146 THE DELUGE. 

and fifty-six years old when it was destroyed. 
God warned the inhabitants of the coming 
flood, or Deluge, as it is called, one hundred 
and twenty years before that time ; but the 
warning was not heeded, and men lived on as 
wickedly as ever. At length, however, the 
time came for the destruction to be sent. Good 
authority says the flood commenced on what 
is now the sixth day of November, and con- 
tinued until the sixteenth day of December, — 
forty days. The account is as follows : — 

" In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, 
in the second month, the seventeenth day of 
the month, the same day were all the foun- 
tains of the great deep broken up, and the 
windows of heaven were opened. And the 
rain was upon the earth forty days and forty 

nights And the waters prevailed, and 

were increased greatly upon the earth; and 
the ark went upon the face of the waters. 



THE DELUGE. 147 

And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the 
earth ; and all the high hills that were under 
the whole heaven were covered. Fifteen cu- 
bits upward did the waters prevail ; and the 
mountains were covered. And all flesh died 
that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and 
of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping 
thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every 
man: all in whose nostrils was the breath of 
life, of all that was in the dry land, died. 
And every living substance was destroyed 
which was upon the face of the ground, both 
man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and 
the fowl of the heaven ; and they were de- 
stroyed from the earth ; and Noah only remained 
alive, and they that were with him in the ark. 
And the waters prevailed upon jthe earth an 
hundred and fifty days." 

What a fearful judgment! How must the 
beginning of that frightful storm have caused 



148 THE DELUGE. 

the unbelieving inhabitants to think of their 
evil deeds, and dread their doom ! They had 
not believed that a deluge would be sent to de- 
stroy them; but when they saw the rain de- 
scending in torrents from the clouds, and the 
waters rolling in upon the earth from their 
beds beneath the ground, they must have said, 
" Surely the flood is coming." Then fear must 
have taken hold of them with power. They 
must have trembled for their sins. But it was 
too late to cry to God for mercy. He would 
have said to them : " Because I have called, 
and ye refused ; I have stretched out my hand, 
and no man regarded; but ye have set at 
naught all my counsel, and would none of my 
reproof ; I also will laugh at your calamity ; 
I will mock when your fear cometh ; when 
your fear cometh as desolation, and your de- 
struction cometh as a whirlwind ; when distress 
and anguish cometh upon you." 



THE DELUGE. 149 

When it is said, " the fountains of the great 
deep were broken up," it doubtless means that 
all the sources of water in the bowels of the 
earth were opened, that the earth might be 
covered more rapidly. It might rain ever so 
hard, and it is doubtful whether the mountain- 
tops would be covered in forty days. 

How terrific must have been the scene, when 
the rising waters drove the people from their 
habitations ! Men, women, and children might 
have been seen fleeing from the villages in deep 
valleys, into which the waters would flow first. 
Mothers, clasping their little infants more closely 
to their bosoms, fled to the hills, or the more 
elevated dwellings of their neighbors, for refuge. 
Little children cried with terror, and clung to 
their parents, as they rushed from their homes 
for safety. As day after day, and night after 
night, of the furious storm passed away, and the 
flood rose higher and higher, some were seen 

13 J 



150 THE DELUGE. 

upon the roofs of houses, others in the tops 
of trees, and others still hurrying up the high- 
est hills and mountains. One week passed, 
and then another, — and still there was no 
sign that the rain would cease. The people 
looked and looked for fair weather ; but it 
came not. As, night after night, thick dark- 
ness spread over the stricken earth, they hoped 
that another morning's dawn would bring re- 
lief. But, alas ! how vain were all their hopes ! 
It rained on and on, night and day, till all 
the houses were buried beneath the waters, and 
all the inhabitants were drowned, save those 
who were driven to the tops of the highest 
hills and mountains. Hundreds, who thus fled 
from the waters, must have died of hunger 
or fatigue before the forty days of rain had 
expired. One after another they dropped from 
their places of fancied security, until the last 
one, exhausted and despairing, sank to rise no 
more. 



THE DELUGE. 151 

Now all that remained of the earth was in 
the ark ; and this mammoth vessel floated over 
the wide-spread ruin. It was one hundred and 
fifty days before the ark rested on Ararat, 
and a few days over a year before the waters 
were dried up, so that Noah and his family 
could leave their floating home. 

Eight human beings, and two of each kind 
of animals, were all that remained on the earth 
after the flood. Thus ended the most fearful 
judgment that ever fell upon mankind ; and 
the reader will learn, — 

That it is dangerous to incur the dis- 
pleasure of God. The wicked Antediluvians 
(for the people who lived before the flood 
are called so) brought upon themselves this 
direful evil by their disregard of Jehovah. 
They found at last that God is not to be 
mocked. This will be the experience of all 
who trifle with his commandments, and refuse 



152 THE DELUGE. 

to obey his word. "If ye will not hearken 
unto me, and will not do all these command- 
ments, I will set my face against yon, and ye 
shall be slain by your enemies : they that 
hate you shall reign over you ; and ye shall 
flee when none pursueth you." 

The safety of Noah sets forth the protection 
God will afford to the righteous. " Whoso 
putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." 
" They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount 
Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth 
forever." Many of the good have realized this 
in their own lives. Trials may have been their 
lot, as was the case with Noah, but they served 
to increase their love and faith, and make the 
end of life more glorious. 

The Deluge is a type of another destruc- 
tion that will come upon the wicked at the 
end of the world. Multitudes are now living, 
as the Antediluvians did, in the most careless 



THE DELUGE. 153 

manner. They have no fear of God before their 
eyes. But a terrible judgment awaits them. 
The Saviour said : " As the days of Noe were, 
so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 
For as in the days that were before the flood 
they were eating and drinking, marrying and 
giving in marriage, until the day that Noe 
entered into the ark ; and knew not until the 
flood came, and took them all away ; so shall 
also the coming of the Son of man be." 



13* 



IX. 

THE BEAUTIFUL BAIOOW. 

AFTER THE deluge was over, Noah and 
his children must have feared that an- 
other great storm would occur to destroy their 
posterity. If God had made no promise to 
them that he would not again flood the whole 
earth with water, they must have been afraid, 
at the commencement of every storm there- 
after, that another flood was coming. We can 
easily imagine how much they would have suf- 
fered from fear in such a case. The sight of 
a gathering cloud would have been more ter- 
rific to them than almost anything else. <• 

Now, God knew that it would be so, and 
he had compassion on Noah, and those who 



THE BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW. 155 

would live after hini. He promised that he 
would never drown the inhabitants of the 
earth again, although they should become very 
wicked. In another way he would deal with 
them for their sins. Then, as a pledge that 
he would keep his promise till the end of 
time, he made a rainbow, and set it in the 
cloud, telling them that such a bright bow of 
promise would appear from time to time, to 
assure them that there would not be a flood. 
We read about this in the ninth chapter of 
Genesis. The account is as follows : — 

"And God said, This is the token of the 
covenant which I make between me and you, 
and every living creature that is with you, for 
perpetual generations. I do set my bow in 
the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a 
covenant between me and the earth. And it 
shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over 
the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the 



156 THE BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW. 

cloud. And I will remember my covenant, 
which is between me and you, and every liv- 
ing creature of all flesh; and the waters shall 
no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 
And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I 
will look upon it, that I may remember the 
everlasting covenant between God and every 
living creature of all flesh that is upon the 
earth." 

This was the first time the rainbow ap- 
peared. It was a little more than sixteen 
hundred and fifty years after the earth was 
created. How wonderful it must have ap- 
peared to Noah and his family! If no one of 
us had ever seen a rainbow, what a remark- 
able sight it would be ! Everybody would run 
to the window, or out of the door, to behold 
it! It would be the subject of conversation 
for a long time. In the stores and shops, on 
the farm and in the rail-car, in both house 



THE BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW. 157 

and street, men and women would talk about 
it. One would inquire of another, as they 
met, if he saw the strange bow in the cloud 
yesterday. " What could it be ? " they would 
say ; and all sorts of reasons would be assigned 
for its appearance. The papers would have 
much to say about it, and all the wise men 
would go to writing articles to show what 
they thought of the phenomenon. Perhaps 
some superstitious people would be alarmed, 
and think it was a bad sign, and 'that some 
dreadful thing was about to happen. There 
are some foolish people in the world, who al- 
ways look upon new and strange occurrences 
in this way. A few years since, when there 
was a shower of stars falling to the earth, 
many of this class thought the world was 
coming to an end, and they were very much 
frightened. They were very foolish indeed, as 
they afterwards confessed. 



158 THE BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW. 

Well, God set the bow in the cloud, and 
Noah saw it. He was a good man, and be- 
lieved just what God said. On this account, 
he was pleased to see the fair bow of promise 
spanning the dark cloud, and he did not fear 
any more that another flood would come. His 
children were not so ready to believe as him- 
self, and, while they were glad to have the 
assurance of God that there should not be an- 
other flood, they were anxious to know how 
the next % storm would turn out. They saw 
that their father had no doubt at all, and 
heard him talk about the goodness of God, 
and tell how glad he was to know that 
there would not be another deluge. Ham, 
who was more incredulous than his two broth- 
ers, as the real character of his posterity 
showed, may have doubted whether all his 
father's hopes would be realized. We imagine 
that he waited rather impatiently for the next 




The Rainbow — Page 161. 



THE BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW. 161 

storm, to see whether the promised rainbow 
would appear. He hoped it would, but he 
could better believe when he saw it. How 
eagerly he watched the next gathering storm ! 
He remembered how it thundered and light- 
ened, and how it rained for forty days, when 
he was in the ark, and now the peals of 
thunder and the lurid flashes of lightning 
made him ask within himself, " Will the bow 
appear ? " He looked and looked, and at last 
he saw the beautiful arch which it made over 
the cloud, and he rejoiced. He saw that God 
was mindful of his word. Still he was not 
altogether without his doubts as to its appear- 
ing again. But as storm after storm came 
and went, and the rainbow did not fail to 
shine, he, and all, settled down into the full 
belief that there would not be another deluge. 
The rainbow came to be greeted as a true 
pledge that another such catastrophe would 



162 THE BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW. 

not be experienced. Ever since that time, 
such has been the feeling ; and now, no one 
is afraid that God will drown the world again. 
As long as the bow of promise is seen, man- 
kind will continue to be at ease about such 
a destruction. 

But there is another point. A boy asks his 
father, "What is the rainbow made of?" 

" Have you no ideas of your own about 
it ? " replies his father. 

" Well, yes ! I should think it was made 
of the same stuff that the moon and stars 
are. It is about the same color, only it looks 
a little blue and violet and red." 

"But, my son, the rainbow is not a real 
object that has substance and weight, like the 
moon, hung up in the sky by the hand of 
God." 

"Do you mean that it is not something 
that we could handle, as we can a hoop ? " 



THE BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW, 163 

" Certainly. It cannot be handled any more 
than a ray of light can be handled. It is 
made by the light and the rain-drops." 

" Made by the light and the rain-drops ! " 
exclaimed the boy, with much surprise. " How 
can that be?" 

"Well, in the first place, you will recollect 
that the sun shines, and that it still rains in 
the direction of the bow, when you first see it. 
The rainbow is always seen before the thun- 
der-storm has disappeared, and directly after 
it has passed over our heads, and the sun 
shines forth. This circumstance alone would 
indicate that the light and rain have some- 
thing to do with making it." 

" I should think that the cloud had more 
to do with it than the rain," adds the boy. 

" It is true that the cloud is necessary to 
reflect the bow. There would be no bow seen 
without the cloud. But the sun and the rain 

14 



164 THE BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW. 

paint the bow there, as if they were artists. 
When the cloud is very dark opposite the sun, 
the rain-drops divide the rays of the sun, as 
the prism does, and then they are seen upon 
the cloud, mingled in different colors, red, 
violet, blue, &c." 

" That was just what our teacher showed us 
the other day. He had a glass thing which 
he called a prism, and he threw the rays of 
light on the blackboard, to show us that they 
were of different colors." 

"Exactly so. Just as that prism divided 
the rays of the sun, and threw them upon the 
blackboard, so the rain-drop, acting as a prism, 
divides the sun's rays, and reflects them upon 
the dark cloud, blended in their different colors. 
A rainbow is no more substantial than that." 

"Then I should like to know," inquired 
the son, "how it is that a rainbow was never 
seen until the world was sixteen hundred and 



THE BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW. 165 

fifty years old ; for it rained before, and the 
sun shone too, and there must have been dark 
clouds." 

" That is a point worth knowing. I hardly 
thought you would think of it, and I intended 
to call your attention to it. I suppose that 
the rainbow which Noah saw was the first ever 
seen. Although the cause of it had existed 
ever since the sun was made and rain de- 
scended, God might have prevented its appear- 
ance. It was as easy for him to prevent it 
being seen before that time, as to create the 
cause of its existence." 

" But what objection is there to the view that 
the rainbow existed before the flood, and that it 
was not a new thing when Noah saw it ? " 

" There is this objection. If the rainbow 
had been familiar to man, it would not have 
been so good a pledge of God's word, that 
there should not be another flood. Noah and 



166 THE BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW. 

his descendants would have said that the del- 
uge came notwithstanding there was a rainbow, 
and why could not another like destruction 
come in spite of the bow ? It would not have 
been so valid an assurance of security to them 
as it would if they had never seen it before. 
For this reason, God might have withheld the 
sight of it until after the deluge, that its moral 
uses might be more available. We do not 
always see a rainbow after a storm now ; and 
we know not why God might not have with- 
held it entirely until the time came for it to 
be a promise that he would not send another 
deluge. I am satisfied that no one saw a 
rainbow until it was made a pledge of the 
covenant into which God entered with Noah." 
How much reason we all have to believe 
God ! It is now about four thousand years 
since the rainbow first appeared, and it is still 
seen as bright and beautiful as ever. The 



THE BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW. 167 

world has not been visited with another flood, 
although winds and storms have continued to 
sweep over land and sea. People have been 
very wicked, and vice and crime have abound- 
ed, until one would think the patience of 
God must be tried, and yet mankind are not 
drowned. God has kept his promise four 
thousand years, and this is a good assurance 
that he will continue to keep it to the end of 
time. His own character and wise govern- 
ment ought to be sufficient to lead us to put 
our trust in him ; but we are so imperfect, 
that we almost .demand some such pledge as 
a rainbow four thousand years old. This is 
so satisfactory, that now we are confident an- 
other flood will not be sent. We ought to be- 
lieve what God has said about other things, 
as really as about this. His word is as true 
and sure about one thing as another. " God is 
not a man, that he should- lie ; neither the son 

14* K 



168 THE BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW. 

of man, that he should repent. Hath he said, 
and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, 
and shall he not make it good ? " 

How thoughtless many people, both old and 
young, are! They have lived ten, twenty, 
thirty, fifty, and even more years, and beheld 
the rainbow hundreds and thousands of times, 
without thinking of the promise and goodness 
of God! Sometimes they look at it and say, 
"It is splendid! see how bright it is!" but 
never consider that it tells them of the fideli- 
ty of God. They ought to say, " How faithful 
God is ! How good and merciful he is ! " 
Yes ! And sinners ought to consider that he 
is just as faithful to execute his threatenings, 
as he is to keep his promise about another 
flood. What, then, will become of them if they 
do not repent, and love God ? They are as- 
sured in the words of Jehovah, " The wicked 
shall be turned into hell, and all the nations 
that forget God." 



X. 



SHEM, HAM, AND JAPHETH, THE THEEE 
EAIHEKS OE MANKIND. 

WHEN NOAH was about five hundred 
years old, three sons were born to him, 
and he named .them Shem, Ham, and Japheth, 
three very singular names. As we have seen, 
they were married before they entered the ark 
with their parents, though they had no chil- 
dren until after the flood. Japheth was the 
eldest, Ham was second in age, and Shem was 
the youngest. 

As soon as the land was dry enough to till, 
after the deluge, they all went to work at farm- 
ing to obtain food for themselves and fami- 
lies. In this occupation they continued, with 



170 SHEM, HAM, AND JAPHETH, 

their descendants, for many years, — how many 
we do not exactly know. It is certain that 
there was little else for them to do for some 
time. 

Large families of children grew tip around 
them, who, in their turn, were married, and 
had sons and daughters, so that the posterity 
of each became numerous. They formed differ- 
ent branches of Noah's family, and settled in 
different countries. On this account, they are 
called the three fathers of mankind. From 
them sprung all the inhabitants of the earth, 
and hence the Scriptures say, " These are the 
three sons of Noah; and of them was the 
whole earth overspread.'' As their father had* 
no children after the deluge, all the people 
who lived thereafter were their own posterity 

Ham was not so good as his brothers, if we 
may judge from some things which he did, 
as well as from the character of his descend- 



THE THREE FATHERS OF MANKIND. 171 

ants. He was vulgar and unfilial, and made 
sport of his father on one occasion. It was 
some time after the flood, when his father had 
a vineyard to dress for the purpose of making 
wine. We suppose that he planted his vine- 
yard for this object, since a few vines would 
have yielded him all the grapes he wanted to 
eat, if that were his sole object in raising 
them. There would have been no need of his 
going to the trouble and expense of support- 
ing a vineyard. Then, too, we know that he 
expressed the juice from the grapes, and made 
what was called wine ; for we read, " And he 
drank of the wine, and was drunken." Al- 
though the wine was different from that which 
is generally used now, since it was the pure 
juice of the grape, still, after it had fermented, 
it would intoxicate. Noah did not understand 
that its effect would be such upon himself, as 
he had but just commenced the business, so 



172 SHEM, HAM, AND JAPHETH, 

that there is some excuse for his getting in- 
toxicated. So good a man as he was would 
not have drunk of it, if he had known that 
it would deprive him of his reason. Drunken- 
ness is a heinous offence in the sight of God and 
man, and men who are addicted to it lose their 
reputation for being good. Therefore we think 
that Noah sinned ignorantly, and we are con- 
firmed in this opinion from the fact that we 
do not read of his ever being intoxicated again. 
That was the only instance of drunkenness 
that stains his character. It is about the only 
evil thing that is recorded of Noah, who lived 
as long as Methuselah into nineteen years. 
There is scarcely one good man of whom we 
read in the Bible, against whom one or more 
marked sins are not recorded ; and it shows 
that the best men are not perfect, and will 
fall into transgression, if they are not kept by 
the grace of God. 



THE THREE FATHERS OP MANKIND. 173 

Noah lay " within his tent " intoxicated. He 
did not know what was going on around him, 
any more than he could if he had been dead. 
He was entirely helpless and unconscious. The 
flowing robe or garment which he wore did 
not cover him as he lay under his tent, so 
that his naked body was partly exposed. In 
this plight he was seen by Ham, who imme- 
diately turned the affair into sport and ridicule. 
He ran and told his brothers in a jesting and 
vulgar way, and made fun of his father, whom 
he ought to have pitied. He thought that 
Shem and Japheth would join him in making 
sport of the old man ; but he was very much 
mistaken. They were not base enough for 
that. Instead of joining Ham in his wicked 
jesting, they went immediately to cover their 
father. And that they might not see his per- 
son exposed, they walked backwards into the 
tent, and cast the covering over his body. 



174 SHEM, HAM, AND JAPHETH, 

Now this incident shows that Ham was a 
rude, vulgar fellow, having little respect or love 
for his venerable father. We should know that 
his brothers were pure-minded and filial in com- 
parison with him, by the kind and considerate 
manner of their treating their father under the 
circumstances. We can but respect them, while 
we despise him. 

Noah slept off the fumes of intoxication in a 
few hours, and awoke. Shem and Japheth told 
him what had happened, — how Ham had en- 
deavored to turn his shame into ridicule, — 
and he was highly displeased with his unfilial 
son. He summoned him into his presence at 
once, and rebuked him. Then, acting by Di- 
vine direction, he pronounced a curse upon his 
family, and a blessing- upon the families of 
Shem and Japheth. His language was as fol- 
lows : — 

" Cursed be Canaan " (using the term Ca- 



THE THREE FATHERS OP MANKIND. 175 

naan rather than Ham, because the Canaanites 
were his descendants) ; " a servant of servants 
shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, 
Blessed be the Lord God of Shem ; and Canaan 
shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Ja- 
pheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem ; 
and Canaan shall be his servant." 

This language shows how wicked it is to be 
vulgar, and to treat parents with such disre- 
spect. It is akin to much other instruction 
of the Bible concerning the treatment of par- 
ents. " Cursed be he that setteth light by 
his father or his mother." "The eye that 
mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey 
his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick 
it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." 

God is greatly displeased with filial disobe- 
dience, at all times, and in all places. His 
servants have always spoken as severely as 
Noah did against it, and generally divine judg- 

15 



176 SHEM, HAM, AND JAPHETH, 

ments have fallen upon disobedient children. 
Kev. Philip Henry once said to his children* 
concerning a very disobedient boy in the neigh- 
borhood, "Perhaps I may not live to see it, 
but do you take notice whether God do not 
come upon him with some remarkable judg- 
ment in this life, according to the threatening 
annexed to the fifth commandment ; " but he 
lived himself to see his prediction remarkably 
fulfilled. It was so with Ham. Soon after 
the incident narrated, he moved with his de- 
scendants away, and settled in a region of 
country that was afterwards called the "land 
of Ham." His posterity became degraded and 
very wicked. Among them were the Canaan- 
ites, who were distinguished for their vices 
and crimes. They were ignorant, debased, and 
profligate beyond any people around them. 

It turned out, just as the curse indicated, 
that the posterity of Ham should become slaves 



THE THREE FATHERS OP MANKIND, 177 

(" Servant of servants shall he be unto his 
brethren"). He was the father of the black, 
or negro race. His name, Ham, signifies heat, 
or black, referring both to the hot climate of 
the country in which they would live, and to 
the color of their skin. On this account, it is 
not difficult to tell who are the descendants of 
Ham. They are the African race, who have 
been subjected to the rigors and cruelties of 
slavery in different parts of the world. To 
this day, their native land is visited by slave- 
ships, and men, women, and children are stolen 
away from their homes, and sold into hopeless 
bondage. Several hundred have been known 
to be crowded into the stifled hold of a ship 
together, where many of them have died for 
want of food and air, before their voyage to 
a land of bondage was completed. Formerly, 
many vessels went from our own country to 
Africa to catch negroes to sell for slaves, and 



178 SHEM, HAM, AND JAPHETH, 

now occasionally one goes secretly, though the 
laws of the land forbid it. We have three 
or fonr million slaves in our own country, 
and their ancestors came from Africa. They 
are all the descendants of Ham. They have 
suffered in all their relations on account of 
slavery. They are more ignorant, degraded, 
and wicked than they would have been if 
free. 

We see, then, how Ham was cursed for the 
manner of treating his father; and the char- 
acter of his descendants throws still more light 
upon his own character. "Like father, like 
son," it is often said. Children are generally 
like their parents, although there are many 
exceptions to the rule. The precepts and ex- 
ample of parents generally influence children 
to walk in their steps, for better or worse. 
The children of the pious constitute a large 
majority of those who are converted, and be- 



THE THREE FATHERS OF MANKIND. 179 

come members of our churches. This being 
true, we may justly conclude, from the de- 
based character of Ham's posterity, that he 
himself was as bad as we have said he was. 

We have said that Shem, Ham, and Japheth 
were the three fathers of mankind. We have 
seen that Ham was the father of the African 
race; and now the reader will desire to know 
what portions of the human family belong to 
the other two brothers. We can answer in a 
word. The inhabitants of Asia are the de- 
scendants of Shem, and those of Europe are 
the posterity of Japheth. As the Americans 
descended from the European, or great Saxon 
race, Japheth is our ancestor. Other inhab- 
itants of the earth, living on the islands of the 
sea, sprung from one of these nations, — Eu- 
rope, Asia, or Africa. This is a fact which 
the reader will do well to fix in his mind for 
future use ; namely, that Ham was the father 

15* 



180 



SHEM, HAM, AND JAPHETH, 



of the African, Shem of the Asiatic, and Ja- 
pheth of the European race. 

But we have not yet seen how much better 
Shem and Japheth fared than Ham did. A 
blessing was pronounced upon both of them, 
and it was realized in due time. Shem was 
to inherit the land of Canaan with his descend- 
ants, to whom the Canaanites should become 
subject, and from his line of the family the 
Messiah would come forth in process of time, — 
all of which was fully realized. Then the 
promise to Japheth was, that he should be en- 
larged and strengthened in the number, influ- 
ence, and character of his posterity ; and this 
is seen by all at a glance. If, as we have said, 
Japheth was the father of the Europeans and 
Americans, and all others directly descended 
from them, we readily see how remarkably 
the blessing has been experienced. For among 
this portion of the human family the Gospel 



THE THREE FATHERS OF MANKIND. 181 

has advanced most rapidly. They enjoy the 
ordinances of religion as no other nations do. 
They commenced the great missionary enter- 
prise of modern times. They have carried the 
Gospel to thousands of the descendants of Ham 
in Africa and other portions of the earth. 
They are now the principal agents in supply- 
ing the heathen nations everywhere with the 
means of grace. Upon them the nations in 
darkness must mainly depend for missionaries, 
Bibles, and sanctuary privileges. They are the 
possessors of what is called the Saxon language, 
more widely spoken on the earth than any other 
language, and which promises to spread over 
all the world. In this respect, we see how Ja- 
pheth has been "enlarged," according to the 
promise. 

How plain, then, that Ham experienced evils 
in consequence of his bad character and his 
disrespect for his pious father, while his two 



182 SHEM, HAM, AND JAPHETH, 

brothers shared Divine favors, because they 
had more principle, and showed true filial re- 
gard for their parent ! Perhaps Ham thought, 
as many do at the present day, that it makes 
little difference whether a person is good or 
bad, as to his success in life. There are some 
who believe that they can get rich and honored 
faster by disregarding the truth, and being de- 
ceitful and dishonest, than they can by doing 
as the Bible directs. But sooner or later they 
find themselves mistaken. For a season they 
may be successful in what they undertake, 
and seem to be even more prosperous than the 
righteous ; but how frequently some unexpect- 
ed misfortune overtakes them, and all their 
plans fail ! Very often the evil appears among 
their children, as was the case with the children 
of Ham. They follow their father's example, 
and become dishonest and " haters of God," 
and finally gamble and drink, and perpetrate 



THE THREE FATHERS OF MANKIND. 183 

gross crimes, for which they are punished. 
There are many young men in the prisons of 
our land to-day, because they followed the ex- 
ample of unprincipled fathers, — the worst of 
all evils to be experienced in a family. There 
are many others there because they lacked 
filial love. A young man in South Carolina 
was sentenced to the penitentiary for four 
years, as the penalty for some crime he com- 
mitted. Just before his sentence was pro- 
nounced, the court allowed him to speak, and 
he said, " that his downward course commenced 
in disobedience to his parents ; that he thought 
he knew as much of the world as his father, 
and needed not his aid or advice ; but that 
as soon as he turned his back upon his home, 
then temptations came around him like a drove 
of hyenas, and hurried him on to ruin." If 
there were any prisons in Canaan, we think that 
the posterity of Ham filled most of the cells. 



184 SHEM, HAM, AND JAPHETH, 

The reader should not infer that the daugh- 
ters of Ham, and all his female descendants, 
escaped the curse of his vicious principles, al- 
though we have spoken chiefly of sons. The 
females became as debased and wicked as the 
males, though not in the same way, perhaps. 
The vices of gambling, intemperance, and pro- 
fanity are not usually so rife among females 
as males, and yet, in other ways, the former 
may show themselves to be as destitute of 
moral principle. The remarks we have made 
concerning the influence of bad character, and 
the unfilial treatment of parents, apply equal- 
ly to both sexes. A daughter who treats her 
mother with disrespect is sure to experience 
evil results from the act, sooner or later. She 
may not suffer in the same way that disobe- 
dient sons do, but she will suffer in some way. 
It was but the other day that we read the fol- 
lowing incident, which we relate in our own 
language. 






THE THREE FATHERS OF MANKIND. 185 

The daughter of a gay and wealthy father 
was early taught to dance. Even when she 
was a child he introduced her to the ball- 
room, proud of her beauty and grace. Her 
mother was a pious woman, and earnestly 
importuned her husband to be more consid- 
erate ; but he was too much like Ham to heed 
her entreaties, and only made sport of her re- 
ligion, as Ham did of his father's misfortune. 
When the daughter was in her youth, how- 
ever, her father died, and now there seemed 
to be some hope that she would do better. 
She loved her mother, and seemed disposed, 
for a time, to heed her counsels. But at 
length her uncle, a worldly man like her de- 
ceased father, came on a visit to the fam- 
ily. During his stay a ball was announced, 
and the uncle proposed to take thither this 
widow's daughter, — his niece, — now a beauti- 
ful young lady. Her mother refused to let 



186 SHEM, HAM, AND JAPHETH, 

her go, and appealed to her, as none but a 
loving, pious mother can, to decline. But the 
girl loved the dance, and the temptation was 
too strong. " Only this once, mother," she 
said ; but her mother was immovable. The 
result was that the thoughtless girl determined 
to go against her mother's wishes. " 0, be- 
ware, my child ! " said her mother, " and re- 
member that ' he who hardeneth his neck 
under reproof shall be destroyed, and that 
suddenly' These are fearful words for us to 
part with, my child. 0, heed my reproof, and 
do not harden your neck ! " 

She went, and was the belle of the evening. 
She was often solicited to dance, so that she 
became over-heated and exhausted. Her part- 
ner was leading her out of the hall, that she 
might breathe purer air, when a waiter ran 
against her with a pitcher of cold water, and 
the contents were poured over her heated neck 






THE THREE FATHERS OF MANKIND. 187 

and into her bosom. The revulsion was so 
great that she was thrown into spasms, and 
soon after was conveyed home, where she ex- 
pired before sunrise, in the arms of her dis- 
tracted mother. The last word that escaped 
her lips was, " Suddenly ! " 

How full of instruction, then, are the lives 
of Shem, Ham, and Japheth ! They show us 
where " the better part of wisdom " lies. They 
magnify the value of good principles, in con- 
trast with the bad. And they especially set 
forth the significance of the command, " Honor 
thy father and thy mother, that thy days may 
be long upon the land which the Lord thy 
God giveth thee." 



16 



XI. 

THE TOWEK Of BABEL. 

THE FIRST great work of art of which 
we read, after the flood, was the building 
of the Tower of Babel. The account of it is 
found in the eleventh chapter of Genesis. It 
was truly a gr.eat work for that early day, — 
greater than it is now to build a Bunker Hill 
or Washington monument. Then the people 
did not know how to split rocks to pieces, and 
hew stones for such a large building. It is 
rather surprising that they undertook such an 
enterprise at all, when they were so poorly 
prepared to carry it on. But they were am- 
bitious, energetic, and persevering in worldly 
measures ; and this is the best compliment we 



THE TOWER OF BABEL. 189 

can pay them. For there is no record left to 
show us that they loved or served God. 

It appears that, after the flood, for many 
years, the sons of Noah lived in the region 
round about Mount Ararat, and their families 
rapidly increased. They must have numbered 
thousands by the time Noah died. He lived 
three hundred and fifty years after the flood, 
— long enough to see his grandchildren, great- 
grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, and 
even great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren, 
grow up around him. As he was the only 
old man living at that time, he must have 
been quite a favorite among the young peo- 
ple, who generally respect and love their 
grandparents. As he lived to be nine hun- 
dred and fifty years old, he probably was not 
able to do much for some years before his 
death; so that he had ample time, if he had 
strength, to go about among his relations. 



190 THE TOWER OF BABEL. 

We imagine that all the little Shems, Hams, 
and Japheths were always glad to see him, 
and ran to take his cane and hat, and set 
him a chair, as soon as he came in. We have 
noticed that good boys and girls always treat 
the aged with such- respect and reverence. 

So long as Noah lived, his descendants ap- 
pear to have been content* to dwell upon the 
hills and mountains, not far from the place 
where the ark rested. They seem to have 
chosen such elevated ground for some reason 
best known to themselves. But after Noah's 
death, a portion became discontented with 
their home, and resolved to move away. So 
the time was appointed, and arrangements 
were made, for their departure. It was a 
very solemn time, doubtless, when this colony 
of families bade adieu to the numerous friends 
whom they would leave behind. Perhaps they 
had such a time as Paul did when he left 



THE TOWER OF BABEL. 191 

his dear friends at Ephesus, as he and they 
supposed, for the last time. They fell weeping 
on his neck, and kissed him, as if their hearts 
were breaking with the parting. So these col- 
onists may have parted from their neighbors 
and kindred. 

They journeyed "from the East," and, in 
process of time, reached the river Euphrates, 
a very large river, on both sides of which was 
subsequently reared the great city of Babylon. 
Here they came to an extensive and beautiful 
plain, that presented a striking contrast with 
the mountainous region where they had lived. 
Perhaps the contrast impressed them favorably, 
and, for this reason, they decided to make 
a settlement there. Here their colony was 
planted, and it was not long before some one 
of them invented a way to make bricks. The 
soil throughout the plain was good for making 
bricks, and a kind of mineral pitch ov^cement 
16* 



192 THE TOWER OF BABEL. 

was abundant, with which they mixed it be- 
fore moulding it into bricks. It was not so 
much work to make them, at that time, and 
in that place, because the materials were so 
good and abundant. All they had to do was 
to dig up the earth, and mix it with the pitch 
so abundant, and dry it in the sun. A person 
who has travelled in that country, within a 
few years, says that the soil is so good for 
brick-making, that a portion of it moistened 
would dry as hard as a stone in thirty min- 
utes, in any shape into which it was moulded. 
These bricks are still found in some of the 
ruins of that land, retaining their form in a 
good degree, although between three and four 
thousand years have passed since they were 
made. 

The plain where this colony settled is called 
Shinar. The reader should remember it as 
the place where bricks were first made, — an 




The Tower of Babel. — Page 195» 



THE TOWER OF BABEL. 195 

art which has been of great advantage to all 
the nations. In our own country now, many- 
millions of dollars are invested every year in 
the manufacture of bricks. 

How any one was led to think that bricks 
could be made from the soil suitable for build- 
ing houses, we do not know. But God could 
easily open the way to this discovery. 

No sooner had they discovered how to make 
bricks, than they resolved to build a city and 
high tower. "And they said, let us build us 
a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto 
heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we 
be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole 
earth." So they went to work with much 
•energy to build the city and tower. They did 
not mean that they would build a structure 
so high that it would actually reach the heav- 
ens; but this expression is employed to de- 
note that it would be very high. Perhaps 



196 THE TOWER OF BABEL. 

their plan was to have this erected in the 
centre of the city, that it might appear more 
imposing. At any rate, they commenced the 
remarkable structure, and went on with a 
great deal of spirit for a while, until God in- 
tercepted their labors. Why God stopped their 
work we shall see in the sequel. It is neces- 
sary, first, to know why they should want to 
erect such a tower as that. Some have said 
that they remembered the flood, and desired 
to rear such a building, into which they might 
run in case of another deluge. But this could 
not have been their object ; for if it had been, 
would they not have reared it on the summit 
of Ararat, or some other mountain, instead of 
the low plain of Shinar ? It is probable that, 
if they had finished the tower, it would not 
have been so high as Ararat. So that the 
same building would have reached twice as 
high, if it had been erected on the top of that 



THE TOWER OP BABEL. 197 

mountain rather than on the plain. More- 
over, such a brick tower could not have with- 
stood* the shocks of a flood, and this they must 
have known. The winds and waves would 
have shaken it down in the general ruin. Oth- 
ers have said they built it for a citadel, a 
place of defence, in time of war. There is 
more reason for this view than there is for the 
other, since different nations began to fight al- 
most as soon as they began to exist. Yet there 
is no reason to account for the work in this 
way. The true reason is given us in the Biblg, 
and we have already quoted it. It is found in 
the words, " let us make us a name." They 
wanted to build a tower, because it would 
make them renowned. Such a work had 
never been done. No such building had ever 
been reared, and it would be a great wonder. 
It would have been the first wonder of the 
world, if they had finished it according to their 



198 THE TOWER OF BABEL. 

original plan. It was their pride and vanity 
that led them to undertake such a work. 
They desired fame and honor. They wanted 
to have it said abroad, that the colony on the 
plain of Shinar had built a great city, and 
reared a monument that was a perfect wonder 
of art. They wished to beat everybody else. 
v Theirs was exactly such pride and vanity 
as we see now. Young people show it in 
their fondness for dress. A little girl has a 
new bonnet, and she wants to go to meeting 
tp exhibit it. A little boy has a new hat or 
coat, and he wears it with a look that seems 
to say, " How nice it is ! " Young ladies and 
young men are not much better. How vain 
they often are of the clothes they wear ! If 
they can have better apparel than any one else 
wears, it is just what they want. The nicest 
bonnet, the costliest watch, the richest furs, 
the handsomest boot, will make some of them 



THE TOWER OF BABEL. 199 

feel better than it would to have the best 
heart. Their parents, too, may not be alto- 
gether free from this fault. How many of 
them want the most expensive house, the nicest 
furniture, the best horse and carriage, that 
they may live in the finest style. One neigh- 
bor gets an article of dress or furniture, and 
another neighbor soon outdoes him by pur- 
chasing that which is better. Hence there is 
a great deal of envy, jealousy, and rivalry in 
the world. If there were no pride nor vanity, 
there would be little or no envy and rivalry. 

Sometimes this pride and vanity appear on 
a larger scale. A very rich man wants to 
get him a name ; so he endows an institution 
that will exist long after he is dead. A very 
ambitious man wants to be known as governor 
or president ; so he labors for office all his 
life long. Another covets the conqueror's crown 
of victory ; so he leads an army to the field 



200 THE TOWER OF BABEL. 

of battle. In these ways many persons now 
show the same kind of vanity that the builders 
of Babel's tower did. And it was for this rea- 
son that God stopped their work, and scattered 
them abroad. They thought more of them- 
selves than they did of God. They cared not 
whether God was honored, if they could have 
renown. Their own glory, and not his, was 
what they sought. On this account, God ab- 
horred their work, and determined to thwart 
their plans. He would not suffer them to enjoy 
the honor of building such a tower and city, 
to the neglect and reproach of himself. 

" So the Lord scattered them abroad from 
thence upon the face of all the earth ; and 
they left off to build the city." 

But how did God scatter them abroad ? It 
was done in a very strange and unexpected 
way. A person who had never read the ac- 
count might suppose that he sent a furious 



THE TOWER OF BABEL. 201 

storm to demolish the work of their hands ; 
or that he sent some dreadful disease to make 
sad havoc. among the workmen, and thus drive 
them in terror from the place. But he did 
no such thing. He chose a way that no one 
would have dreamed -of, and yet it was very 
simple. It was this. He caused the people to 
speak in different languages, so that they could 
not understand each other. You know that 
now different nations speak different languages, 
so that one cannot understand the other. You 
cannot understand the Frenchman, nor the Span- 
iard, nor the Italian ; neither can they under- 
stand you. But there was only one language 
spoken during the first two thousand years, or 
from the creation to the time Babel was built. 
All the people spoke the same language. 
When they began to build that tower, the 
master-workmen could understand every one of 
his men, and they could all understand him. 

17 M 



202 THE TOWER OP BABEL. 

But God said, " Let us go down, and there 
confound their language, that they may not 
understand one another's speech." 

When this was done, a great change came 
over them. If a youth asks, how God could 
change their speech, we answer that we can- 
not tell ; but we know that he could change 
their speech as easily as to make them speak 
at all. It is enough to know that he did it. 

Now an end was put to their work more 
effectually than a violent hurricane blowing 
down the walls could have done. For if they 
could not understand one another, they could 
not labor together. If a farmer should employ 
a Spaniard, just from his native land, to till 
his soil, he would find it impossible to do 
much with him. As they could not under- 
stand each other, the farmer could not give 
him directions. He might make him under- 
stand certain things by signs, but not enough 



THE TOWER OF BABEL. 203 

to render his service of much use. He would 
have one name for a hoe or shovel, and the 
Spaniard another ; and so of every other thing. 
The farmer would very soon be glad to part 
with his help. Sometimes railroad-builders have 
found it very difficult to get along with Irish- 
men just from their native country, because 
they could not understand their language. It 
was difficult to make them understand what 
was wanted. And yet their language is not 
so unlike our own as the French or Italian. 
If, then, a railroad-contractor finds it so difficult 
to direct his foreign workmen, how much more 
must this have been true of the master-builder 
of Babel ! One portion of his workmen were 
caused to speak in one language, another in 
a different one. Hitherto they all had one 
name for a brick, one for mortar, and one for 
everything else. But now they had many 
names for each object. Just imagine what 



204 THE TOWER OF BABEL. 

confusion there must have been for the speak- 
ers of different languages to be calling out for 
bricks, mortar, or other things in different lan- 
guages. A flock of bob-o'-links or blackbirds 
make a noise that might aptly be compared 
to it. Of course, they could not understand 
each other, and hence they could not work. 
They were obliged to give it up. Before the 
tower was half done, the last brick was laid. 

The name Babel was given to the tower, be- 
cause God confounded their language. The 
name signifies confusion. 

We should like to have been there to wit- 
ness the scene. Probably many of them did 
not know what was the matter when they first 
began to speak another language, and could 
not speak their own. Doubtless they tried and 
tried to speak in their old way, and knew not 
what was the matter with their tongues. Per- 
haps some of them were frightened. Suppose 



THE TOWER OF BABEL. 205 

the reader were in a school-room, and in the 
midst of the exercises one scholar should begin 
to recite his lessons in French, another in Ger- 
man, another in Spanish, and so on, only a 
few being able to recite in English, how sur- 
prised you would be ! You might be alarmed 
and wonder what was the matter ! Perhaps 
it was so with the Babel builders. It must 
have been an exciting time to them. 

Well, they could work no longer on the 
tower. Neither could they dwell and toil to- 
gether in any one pursuit to advantage. For 
this reason they separated, and those who spoke 
one language went in a colony in one direc- 
tion, while those who spoke another language 
colonized in another region. Thus they were 
scattered abroad, speaking different languages. 

We have said that this tower was a very 
great work. We do not know exactly its size, 
but it must have been very large. Some writers 

17* 



206 THE TOWER OF BABEL. 

say the people were three years in getting 
materials ready to commence it, and that they 
had worked on it twenty-two years when God 
stopped their labors. An ancient tradition 
states that the bricks (which might be called 
blocks more properly) were twenty feet long, 
fifteen broad, and seven thick. They were full 
as large as the granite blocks which are now 
used in our largest and costliest edifices, if 
that tradition be true. 

Let the reader remember, then, that the first 
time different languages were spoken was at 
the tower of Babel. For nearly two thousand 
years before, only one language was spoken 
by all the inhabitants of the earth. Since that 
time, however, there have been many lan- 
guages. There are now spoken, on the face 
of the earth, nearly three thousand languages 
and dialects. The Bible itself is translated into 
about two hundred languages and dialects. 



THE TOWER OF BABEL. 207 

When the young reader is disposed to be 
vain about anything, let him or her consider 
how God dislikes it. If he would confound 
the language of the Babel builders, and have 
the curse continue until the present time, to 
express his disapproval of this sin, it must be 
very heinous in his sight. It is not generally 
thought to be very wrong to be vain. People 
laugh about it sometimes. But when we see 
how God punished it in the people of Babel, 
it does not appear to be a trifling affair. The 
curse which God sent upon it still continues, 
though nearly four thousand years have elapsed. 
We may call it a curse, when we reflect how 
it hinders the progress of the Gospel. For 
now the missionary is obliged to spend months, 
and even years, in preparing himself to preach 
to the heathen nations. He isr obliged to learn 
their language first, and then translate the 
Bible, or portions of it, into it. before he is 



208 THE TOWER OF BABEL. 

prepared to preach intelligently to the people. 
This consumes a great deal of time, and re- 
quires much patience. It is often the most 
laborious part of the missionary's work. Now, 
if all the inhabitants of the earth spoke the 
same language, the missionary could go any- 
where to preach the Gospel, and the people 
could understand him. How much faster the 
glad tidings of salvation could be carried to 
the perishing ! How much more easily the 
work could be done ! All this additional labor 
and trial is the consequence of pride and van- 
ity. We suffer still the evil resulting from 
these low qualities of the men and women who 
builded Babel, just as children often experience 
ills in consequence of their parents' and grand- 
parents' sins. Hence pride and vanity must 
be very sinful in the sight of God. 

Instead of thinking so much about becoming 
distinguished for riches, influence, power, or 



THE TOWER OF BABEL. 209 

for nice clothes and a good house, the young 
should think more of a good character, by 
which they will secure the respect of men and 
the approbation of God. All who are truly 
good share the confidence and esteem of others, 
though they may be poor and humble. And 
what is better still, they are prepared to be 
useful while they live, and to go to heaven 
when they die. 



XII. 

ABEAM AS A BOY AND YOUNG MAN. 

THERE WAS a city in the great coun- 
try of Mesopotamia, the name of which 
was spelled with only two letters. It was the 
city of Uk, — not so large a city as some oth- 
ers, nor so highly distinguished in some re- 
spects. It was famed, however, for one thing, 
— its inhabitants, in common with many of 
the people in the region round about, wor- 
shipped the sun, moon, and stars, instead of 
the only true God. Unlike many other hea- 
then, they had no little images made, before 
which they bowed down to worship, but, in 
their stead, paid their devotions to the heav- 
enly orbs. In China and some other parts of 



ABRAM AS A BOY AND YOUNG MAN. 211 

the world, there are individuals "who work all 
the time in making idol-gods, or images of 
wood and stone, for the people to worship. 
They have shops, or stores, where they keep 
them for sale, of all sorts and sizes. When 
a person wants one of these images to worship, 
he goes to the store, and buys such a one as 
he fancies, or such as he can afford, and car- 
ries it home, and there daily bows down to it, 
and mutters his prayers. It is all the god he 
knows anything about. At these idol-shops 
may be seen the rich and poor, the old and 
young, making purchases according to their 
means. A boy can get a small, cheap one 
for a few cents, while a rich man can find 
those which cost many dollars. In this way 
idol-gods are sold, in some heathen nations, 
as merchants now sell toys and groceries. 

But in the city of Ur the people were 
not quite so foolish, though they were really 



212 ABRAM AS A BOY AND YOUNG MAN. 

heathen. It is not so absurd and ridiculous 
surely to 'worship the sun, moon, and stars, 
as it is to buy a little wooden image, that 
some one has made, and kneel down and 
pray to it, as we do to the God of heaven 
and earth. Yet it is bad enough to worship 
the sun, moon, and stars, instead of Jehovah. 
There was no excuse for the inhabitants of Ur 
doing this* and God did not hold them guilt- 
less. In the seventeenth chapter of Deuter- 
onomy God commanded Moses to punish any 
one among the Israelites, who should presume 
to worship the heavenly orbs, with death. 
This shows how God regarded such worship 
then, and he regards it with no more favor 
now. He saw that the heathen were disposed 
to observe such worship, and therefore he would 
hinder them by a severe penalty. 

We remember to have read an incident that 
transpired in France, relating to this point. If 



ABEAM AS A BOY AND YOUNG MAN. 213 

our memory serves us correctly, it was some- 
what as follows. A child, for the sake of the 
experiment, was kept secluded from society, 
and all moral instruction was withholden from 
him. He was not allowed to go out into the 
streets, nor to mix with other children. In 
this way he lived until he was ten years old, 
never having seen the sun or moon up to that 
time. At ten years of age he was allowed to 
go into the garden early one morning before 
the sun was up ; and as the golden orb of 
day came slowly up in the east, over the dis- 
tant mountains, the little fellow gazed with 
amazement upon the mysterious object, and 
then bowed down and worshipped it. This 
proved what the experimenters wanted. They 
believed that the human heart wants to wor- 
ship something, and, if it is ignorant of the 
true God, it will worship some other object. 
The case of the boy proved they were right. 
18 



214 ABRAM AS A BOY AND YOUNG MAN. 

He knew nothing about the true God, yet his 
heart wanted something to worship. If some 
one had taught him to worship a wooden im- 
age, he probably would have done it. But as 
no lessons relating thereto were given him, he 
did not yield to the want of his heart and 
worship anything, until he saw the glorious 
sun on that morning. That was so grand and 
majestic that he worshipped it as a deity. 

But to return to our story. In the city of 
Ur there lived a man by the name of Terah, 
and he had three sons, to the youngest of 
whom he gave the name Abram. He was 
born in the year of the world 2008, two years 
after the death of Noah. He was a very prom- 
ising child, and great hopes were entertained 
of him. As he grew up, he showed a quiet 
and amiable temper, and sought to do right 
in all places and at all times. He was no 
trouble to his parents when he was a boy, as 



ABRAM AS A BOY AND YOUNG MAN. 215 

he was ever obedient and affectionate. Un- 
like many boys in the city, he loved his home 
and his parents more than he did the sports 
of the street. When others were spending 
their time foolishly, enjoying the allurements 
and follies of the city, he was at home with 
his parents, ever aspiring after nobler things. 
What is very singular, he loved and wor- 
shipped the true God, although most of the 
people around him worshipped the sun, moon, 
and stars. It is probable that his own father 
and brothers worshipped these heavenly bodies, 
in Abram's younger years. But Abram him- 
self does not appear to have been inclined to 
such worship. On the other hand, as he ap- 
proached to early manhood, he became dis- 
gusted with the superstition, and opposed it 
by word and deed. It is probable that he 
openly denounced the worship of the sun, and 
exhorted them to worship the true God. God 



216 ABRAM AS A BOY AND YOUNG MAN. 

smiled upon him, so that he was able to stand 
up against the ridicule and contempt that were 
poured upon him. But his situation became 
very unpleasant, so that he was at last glad to 
move away from the city. This did not occur, 
however, until his influence was felt in his 
father's family. If his parents and brothers 
worshipped the sun, moon, and stars, he evi- 
dently influenced them to desist, since they 
fully sympathized with him at last. It is an 
instance where a good son was the means of 
leading his own parents and brothers in the 
right path. It shows that children may do 
good at home by maintaining good principles 
and setting a good example. 

Just before Abram was old enough to be 
married, his brother Haran sickened and died. 
This was a very sad and melancholy event to 
the family, and had its influence in direct- 
ing their thoughts more to God. He was 



ABRAM AS A BOY AND YOUNG MAN. 217 

buried in Ur, and Terah's home was made 
desolate. 

Quite young in life Abram was married to 
a young lady whom we know as Sarai. She 
was very beautiful, though this was not the 
chief attraction to Abram. He was not so fool- 
ish as to be captivated by personal beauty 
alone. He thought too much of true excel- 
lence for that. For this reason we conclude 
that Sarai had a good heart, as well as a pretty 
face. Of course he had no objection to a 
beautiful face, provided it came with a good 
character. So Abram was married. 

It was not long after this wedding when 
Abram's father resolved to move away, and 
take all his family with him. As none of 
them objected to the step, except Nahor and 
his wife, it is probable a residence in the city 
had become unpleasant to them, either on ac- 
count of the wickedness upon which they were 

18* N 



218 ABRAM AS A BOY AND YOUNG MAN. 

compelled to look, or the contempt and oppo- 
sition with which they were assailed for their 
worship of the true God. It is often a very 
painful affair to move away from one's native 
place. It is particularly so to young people. 
It must have been so to Abram, unless he was 
made heart-sick by the scenes of wickedness or 
the enmity around him. He was just the 
young man to form strong attachments, and 
to dislike to sever old ties of love and friend- 
ship. He was not a roving planet, as some 
young men are. He had too much good sense 
and true worth to be such. Still he had not 
a word to say against his father's proposed 
removal. He prepared to go with him and 
take his wife. 

It was not long before Terah, his father, 
was ready to start. His business was all 
settled, his household effects packed, and every 
other necessary preparation was made. So 



ABRAM AS A BOY AND YOUNG MAN. 219 

they bade farewell to Ur, and proceeded on 
their journey. Perhaps the sun-worshippers of 
their native city were glad to have them go, 
as Abram was so faithful to rebuke their sins. 

They moved to Haran, a place that was 
about half-way between Ur and Canaan. There 
they decided to take up their abode. It was a 
pleasant place, situated on the banks of a 
river, and carried on quite a traffic with the 
people of the country around. It is now a 
very poor place, mostly in ruins, and is in- 
habited only by a few families of Arabs, the 
descendants of Ishmael. 

Abram's father was taken sick some time af- 
ter they settled in Haran. It was not, how- 
ever, until Nahor and his wife had joined them 
there. It appears that, after Terah left Ur 
with his family, Nahor was sorry that he did 
not go with them, and he finally decided to 
follow them with his wife, so that the whole 



220 ABRAM AS A BOY AND YOUNG MAN. 

family were in Haran when Terali was taken 
sick. He was now an old man, well worn with 
the cares and labors of life. He knew that he 
could not live long, and his children saw that 
he must die. Accordingly, the death of the 
aged man became the subject of constant 
thought and frequent remark in the family. 
The death of a father was an event as sad 
and afflictive then as it is now. It caused a 
great breach in the family. Therefore the 
death of Terah was anticipated with anxiety 
and sorrow. But his last hour on earth came, 
— and he died. 

Now Abram was obliged to assume new 
duties. Fathers then, more than now, had 
the oversight and direction of their sons, even 
after they had passed into the years of man- 
hood. Consequently Abram must have de- 
pended much upon his father, and probably 
lived with him after he was married. Being 



ABRAM AS A BOY AND YOUNG MAN. 221 

the youngest son, too, Terah would naturally 
feel disposed to watch over him with increased 
solicitude. But now Abram was cast upon his 
own resources. 

His business was farming and cattle-raising, 
to which he attended with commendable zeal, 
as we judge from the fact that we read of him, 
some years after, distinguished for his riches. 
It was not unusual for men in that day to be 
worth their thousands in herds and flocks. 

How long Abram lived in Haran after his 
father died, we do not know exactly. It was 
not long, however. But he continued to share 
in the kind favor of God. He walked circum- 
spectly before his fellow-men, and endeavored 
to perform the will of God. He grew rapidly 
in influence, and must have been a very prom- 
inent man in Haran. No one could discover 
blemishes in his character, and for that reason 
all respected him at heart. It is very generally 



222 



ABRAM AS A BOY AND YOUNG MAN. 



true, that young men who do as well as they 
can, gain influence and high position. Those 
who have no regard to the principles which 
they exhibit, and no desire or aim to be virtu- 
ous, are the ones who lack friends and the 
confidence of the public. It has generally been 
so. Doubtless it was so in the time of Abram. 
God has said, " Them that honor me, I will 
honor." As Abram did what, he could to 
honor God in Haran, obeying his will in all 
circumstances, and always vindicating his char- 
acter and government, God honored him. He 
gave him success in his undertakings, helped 
him to gain influence and distinction, and, what 
is better, gave him grace to be good and true, 
when others were corrupt. 



XIII. 

THE STEANGE COMMAND TO ABEAM. 

WHEN ABEAM was enjoying himself 
at home in Haran, God sent a very 
peculiar message to him. It is found in the 
first three verses of the twelfth chapter of 
Genesis, and reads as follows : — 

" Get thee out of thy country, and from thy 
kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a 
land that I will show thee. And I will make 
of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, 
and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a 
blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, 
and curse him that curseth thee ; and in thee 
shall all the families of the earth be blessed." 

No one, before nor since, ever received so 



224 THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 

strange a message as this. There Abram was, 
in his pleasant home in Haran, perhaps ex- 
pecting to live and die there, when lo, he re- 
ceived a Divine command to leave his home 
and go to some unknown place. God did not 
tell him to what place he must go, but assured 
him that he should learn when he was fairly 
on his way. Very few men would be willing 
to leave home in such circumstances. It is 
trying enough to sunder the ties that we have 
formed by a few years' residence in a place, 
to go even to a well-known town to dwell. It 
must be far more unpleasant to break up all 
these connections without knowing where one's 
home will be ; and this was Abram's experi- 
ence. 

He had lived long enough in Haran to make 
it almost as dear as his native place. There 
he buried his father, and formed acquaintan- 
ces that were valued. He had become rich, 






THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 225 

too, in comparison with the mass of the people 
around him. He had arranged evidently to 
continue to reside there, so that the summons 
to leave was unexpected. All these things 
combined to render the message more trying 
to him. 

Yet Abram did not hesitate for a moment. 
He took God at his word, and obeyed him. 
He set about preparing for the unknown jour- 
ney at once. If his neighbors wanted to know 
where he was going to move, he could not 
tell them. They may have laughed at him 
forgoing — he knew not where. " They would 
•not be so foolish, — not they." There is no 
doubt that the whole town of Haran discussed 
the matter of Abram' s moving somewhere, 
though he knew not where. But Abram acted 
wisely. He knew that God would do all things 
well, and that he would show him in good 
season to what place he would conduct him. 

19 



226 THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 

He had perfect confidence in God, and there- 
fore he did not hesitate to obey him. He felt 
safer in obeying the will of God, than he did 
in choosing for himself. This is proof of the 
goodness of his heart. It is only a very, very 
good man who has faith like this. 

Well, the time of Abram's departure arrived. 
He was just seventy-five years old when he 
took his leave of old familiar faces, and set 
off upon his journey. He took with him all 
his possessions, his wife, and Lot, his nephew. 
This Lot was the son of his brother who died 
in Ur, and Abram adopted him, as he had no 
children of his own. They started with the 
promise of God's blessing, and travelled on, 
day after day and week after week. Their 
journey lay over a difficult portion of country, 
as they had to cross deserts and go over high 
mountains. They were obliged to travel slowly, 
as they carried their tent, and all their house- 



THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 227 

hold effects, upon the backs of camels, which 
were the principal beasts of burden at that 
time, as they are now in the same part of 
the world. In this way they went about three 
hundred miles, when they reached Shechem, 
in the land of Canaan. Here God told Abram 
that this was the land to which he intended 
he should come, and assured him that his pos- 
terity should inherit it. So Abram pitched his 
tent there, and built an altar to the Lord, where 
he paid his solemn vows daily, and received 
the Divine blessing. 

He did not dwell long in this place, how- 
ever. For some reason he removed to a moun- 
tain, and pitched his tent between Bethel and 
Hai, where he built another altar to the Lord, 
and observed the rites of his religion. But 
soon after, he removed from this place, though 
he still kept in the land of Canaan. It is 
thought by some that he was obliged to move 



228 THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 

from place to place on account of the oppo- 
sition of the Canaanites, who were idolaters. 
His religion, of course, was opposed to theirs, 
and he was too good a man to make any com- 
promise of truth to please them. On this ac- 
count, they may have troubled him, so that 
his stay in each place became unpleasant. We 
think it is more probable, however, that he 
went from place to place to find grazing for 
his large flocks and herds, as he was now 
more of a shepherd than a farmer. The fact 
that he travelled as a sort of prince, as was 
the case with wealthy shepherds at that time, 
having a large number of servants in attend- 
ance, would shield him, in a measure, from 
the hostility of idolaters. They would fear to 
molest him, on account of his distinction, and 
the number of his company. At a subsequent 
period, we read of his having three hundred 
and eighteen trained servants, who were born 



THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 229 

in his own house, so that he was able to com- 
mand quite an army of his own with which 
to repel a foe. 

Not long after Abram entered the land of 
Canaan, there was a grievous famine, and many 
of the inhabitants starved to death. Abram 
found it difficult to obtain food enough to eat. 
It was altogether a new experience for him, 
"since he had always had enough and to spare. 
He was able now to pay a high price for all 
the food he could purchase, but neither love nor 
money could buy him enough. It is sometimes 
true in our own day, that rich men cannot get 
the money to buy the necessaries of life. In 
1857, when the whole land suffered from the 
financial crisis, and money was very scarce, 
many rich men found it difficult to supply 
their families with food and clothes. We were 
told of one rich man in a Western city, who 
bartered his silver service for provisions, that 

19* 



230 THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 

his family might not starve. Abram found 
himself in similar circumstances, and he re- 
solved to go over into Egypt and remain until 
the famine was over. Egypt was near by, and 
it was a fertile country, that produced abun- 
dantly such things as are good to eat. 

During all this time Abram did not com- 
plain of his hard experience. Most men would 
have murmured at God for sending them away 
from pleasant homes, where there was enough, 
to eat and drink, into a land of want and 
moral darkness. But he knew that God had 
good reasons for sending him there, and he 
was confident that the end would be well. 

Abram was soon on his way to Egypt, whose 
people were full as superstitious and benighted 
as those of Ur, his native place. They wor- 
shipped cats, dogs, and some other animals, as 
the inhabitants of Ur did the heavenly bodies. 
In these circumstances Abram could not ex- 






THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM, 231 

pect many favors from them; but he believed 
that God would take care of him. If the 
reader will turn to the map of Africa, he will 
readily find Egypt in the northern part of it, 
with the great river Nile flowing through the 
centre of it. Being watered by this river, it 
has always been a very rich, productive region 
of country. Its products now are sugar-cane, 
cotton, corn, wheat, millet, beans, lupins, and 
lentils. The Egyptian farmers now have but 
one tool for hand use, and probably they were 
no better furnished when Abram went there. 
This single tool is called a " gedern," and an- 
swers for a hoe, carpenter's adze, hammer, 
rake, spade, and shovel. 

Just before Abram reached Egypt, he thought 
of some of the customs of the people about 
which he knew, and he was afraid. He re- 
membered that the Egyptians, particularly those 
of them in high authority, did not scruple to 



232 THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABEAM. 

seize any beautiful women whom they saw, to 
make them their wives, even though they had 
to slay their husbands in order to accomplish 
their purpose. Therefore he thought that he 
might be slain by the Egyptians, who should 
be attracted by the beauty of his wife ; and, 
for a while, he was troubled. In his dilemma, 
he resorted to this wicked deception, — the first 
wicked act of which we read in the life of 
Abram. He told Sarai, his wife, to tell the 
Egyptians that she was his sister, instead of 
his wife, hoping thereby to save his own life. 
She was his half-sister, both of them having 
had the same father, but different mothers. 
But it was a deception, if not a downright 
falsehood, to tell them she was his sister, since 
he meant thereby to make them believe she 
was not his wife. It is a kind of falsehood 
that is frequently told. We have heard of a 
woman, at whose house a suspicious character 



THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 233 

called, when her husband was absent, and the 
woman, being afraid, represented to him that 
her huslband was somewhere about the house. 
Another woman told a German pedler, whose 
questions led her to think he might be plan- 
ning to break into their house some night, 
that her husband kept two large dogs chained 
in the cellar by day, and let out by night, 
when the truth was that he did not keep 
any. These were falsehoods uttered to save 
from harm, just as Abram uttered one to save 
himself from peril. But there is no excuse 
for them. God does not hold him guiltless 
who utters them. He has given us no liberty 
to tell an untruth, even to save life. 

Such a sin as this in the life of so good a 
man as Abram shows, as I have said before, 
that no one is perfect. We have no record 
of a perfect man or woman in the Bible ex- 
cept Jesus Christ. We can discover some de- 

o 



234 THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 

feet in their characters. All show that they 
are human and imperfect. It was so with 
Abram and his wife. 

Sarai consented to tell the untruth, and 
thereby she shared the guilt. The reader will 
be impatient to know what was the result. 
Well, they had not been in Egypt long before 
King Pharaoh himself was attracted by Sarai's 
beauty. Without leave or license, he ordered 
her to be seized and conveyed to his own house, 
when Abram told him that she was his sister. 
He designed to marry her, whether she was 
willing or not. How long she was at his house 
we do not know ; but before the preparations 
for the marriage were completed, Pharaoh 
learned that she was Abram's wife, and not 
his sister, and at once he carried her back to 
her husband. Notwithstanding he was a very 
wicked man himself, he would not compel her 
to live with him when he found she was an- 



THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 235 

other man's wife. This was kind indeed in 
Pharaoh. Bad men will sometimes perform 
a noble act. He was not enraged at the de- 
ception practised upon him by Abram, as might 
be expected of a corrupt, disappointed man, 
but he spoke in the kindest terms of reproof, 
and the patriarch must have felt the rebuke. 
" What is this that thou hast done unto me ? " 
he said ; " why didst thou not tell me that 
she was thy wife ? Why saidst thou, < She is 
my sister ' ? so I might have taken her to me 
to wife. Now, therefore, behold thy wife, take 
her, and go thy way." 

Thus we see that Abram's deception brought 
him into difficulty, instead of saving him from 
it ; and this is generally the case with false- 
hoods. If he had told Pharaoh that Sarai was 
his wife,* the latter would have made no at- 
tempt to take her from him. His deception 
caused the very thing which he wanted to 



236 THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 

avoid. If he had trusted in God as faithfully 
as usual, and said, " God will take care of me, 
though I tell them that Sarai is my wife," and 
consequently adhered to the truth, all would 
have been well. It is always best to be honest, 
and never depart from the truth. If a man 
ever appears to gain anything by deception, 
it is only for a moment ; in the end, he finds 
that he is a loser thereby. 

Pharaoh ordered his men to send Abram 
away with all his possessions. He charged 
them not to injure him, nor to take from him 
a single article that was his. Thus the heathen 
Pharaoh treated Abram much better than the 
pious Abram treated Pharaoh. How strangely 
a good man will sometimes be led away ! Nor 
is it an argument against religion, but a sure 
proof of the weakness of human nature. 

Abram made ready to depart. He resolved 
to go back to Canaan, where he first settled 



THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 237 

after leaving Ur, on the mountain between 
Bethel and Hai. Now we read that he "was 
very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold," and 
consequently his removal from place to place, 
with all his camels and effects, his herds and 
flocks, was rather imposing. He made haste 
in returning, and found the country in a much 
better condition to supply physical wants than 
when he left it, although it was still rather 
unproductive. 

Here a new trial awaited him. Lot, his 
nephew, had become a man, and had flocks 
and herds of his own. His uncle had been 
exceedingly kind to him, and given him much 
with which to begin life for himself. He took 
pleasure in seeing Lot prosper, who was dear 
to him as an own son. A son would not 
have fared any better at his hands. It was 
such favors that enabled Lot to' accumulate 
property so fast. Soon after their return to 

20 



238 THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 

Canaan, it appears that Lot's herds and flocks 
had become large, so that the land did not 
produce enough for his own and his uncle's 
stock. In consequence of this, a difficulty arose 
between them, in which Lot showed that he 
had not the respect for Abram that he ought 
to have. His herdmen contended with Abram's 
herdmen, and a long and painful strife fol- 
lowed. Both of them had to employ many 
men to take care of their cattle and sheep, 
and these men, each of whom would naturally 
look out for the interests of his own master, 
grew hostile to each other. Lot sympathized 
with his own men, and perhaps Abram did 
with his. At any rate, the affair became a 
serious one. 

A modern traveller says that similar strifes 
occur between herdmen in that country now, 
and that he has often been reminded of the 
contest between the herdmen of Abram and Lot 



THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 239 

by the scenes lie has witnessed. He says: 
"The fields are not, as in England, enclosed 
by fences ; there is simply a ridge that divides 
one from another. Hence the cattle belonging 
to one person find no difficulty in straying 
into the field of another, and the shepherds 
themselves have so little principle, that they 
gladly take advantage of it. Nothing is more 
common than for a man, when the sun has 
gone down, thus to injure his neighbor. The 
time when most of the disputes take place 
is when the paddy, or rice, has been newly 
cut, as the grass left among the stubble is 
then long and green. The herdmen at that 
time become very tenacious, and woe to the 
ox, if within reach of stick or stone, until he 
shall get into his own field. Then the men of 
the other party start up on seeing their cattle 
beaten, and begin to swear, and declare how 
often the others have done the same thing. 



240 THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 

They now approach each other, vociferating the 
most opprobrious epithets ; the hands swiftly 
move about in every direction ; one pretends 
to take up a stone, or spits on the ground in 
token of contempt ; and then comes the con- 
test. The long hair is soon dishevelled, and the 
weaker fall beneath their antagonists. Then 
begins the beating, biting, and scratching, till 
in their cruel rage they have nearly destroyed 
some of the party." 

The strife between the herdmen of Abram 
and Lot did not come to so bad a pass as this, 
though it grew out of similar relations. Abram 
conducted like a Christian man through the 
whole affair, which is more than we can say of 
Lot. The latter was a good man, but he de- 
parted from the right way in this altercation, 
as his uncle did when he told the lie in Egypt. 
Abram had evidently learned a good lesson 
from his sinful course in Egypt, so that he 



THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 243 

was determined to adhere to God and his truth 
in time to come. Hear how kindly he talked 
to Lot. "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, 
between me and thee, and between my herd- 
men and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. 
Is not the whole land before thee? Separate 
thyself, I pray thee, from me ; if thou wilt take 
the left hand, then I will go to the right ; or 
if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go 
to the left." He was willing to do anything 
reasonable for the sake of peace. He would 
allow Lot to choose the best tract of land there 
was, if that would satisfy him. Rather than 
have difficulty with one who was dear to him 
as an own son, he would make pecuniary sac- 
rifice, and subject himself to inconvenience. 

Lot took advantage of his uncle's kindness, 

and selected " the plain of Jordan," because it 

was well-watered and fertile. It was declared 

to be rich and thriving as a garden. Abram 

20* 



244 THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 

yielded to his choice; so the troublesome affair 
was settled, and Lot moved away to the plain 
of Jordan, while Abram remained in the land 
of Canaan. 

This narrative shows that good men will sin 
when they cease to trust in God, and yield 
too much to worldly policy. When Abram 
thought that the Egyptians might steal his 
beautiful wife, he ceased to trust in God, and 
told a lie to prevent so sad a result. If he 
had left it all to God, and kept truth on his 
side, he would not have experienced any 
trouble. So when Lot became too desirous of 
being rich, he got angry and sinned against 
God. The best men can live well only by 
keeping near to God, and following his com- 
mands. 

Whenever we obey God promptly, everything 
turns out better than we expect. Abram left 
his home without knowing where he was going, 



THE STRANGE COMMAND TO ABRAM. 245 

just because God commanded him. He did 
not know but that a dark and trying experi- 
ence awaited him ; -still, he- cheerfully obeyed 
God, and the end was well. He became the 
possessor of Canaan, and a prominent agent of 
God in building up his kingdom in the earth. 
How true it is, that "whoso putteth his trust 
in the Lord shall be safe " ! " He that putteth 
nis trust in me shall possess the land, and shall 
inherit my holy mountain.' 5 



XIV. 

THE FIEST WAK. 

AFTER LOT separated from Abram and 
removed to Sodom, Abram went to 
Mamre, in consequence of a renewed promise 
which God made to him. As if to encourage 
and cheer Abram in his trying circumstances, 
God assured him that temporal and spiritual 
prosperity should be his. He told him to lift 
up his eyes, and look upon the wide extent 
of country that would be his, and to go forth 
and walk over it, that he might have a correct 
view of its extent. " Arise, walk through the 
land in the length of it and in the breadth of 
it ; for I will give it unto thee." 

The plain of Mamre was not far from Bethel, 






THE FIRST WAR. 247 

where Abram had resided. He could travel 
thither in about eighteen hours. It derived its 
name from its original owner, a man by the 
name of Mamre. The field of Machpelah, 
where Abram with his wife and several chil- 
dren were afterwards buried, was situated upon 
the side of a high hill that overlooked the 
plain. In this plain the mother of Constantine 
erected a splendid temple, which some of the 
Moslems call Solomon's temple, which neither 
Jews nor Christians are allowed to enter. The 
Jews are allowed to come to the wall, near 
by a certain gate, and there r,gad, say their 
prayers, and weep, in honor of their ancestors. 
This plain is about twenty-five miles from Je- 
rusalem, and one hundred from Nazareth. 

Here Abram pitched his tent and dwelt alone 
with Sarai and his servants. As Lot had gone 
to Sodom to live, and they had no children of 
their own, they were left somewhat lonely in 



248 THE FIRST WAR. 

their old age. It is true they had several 
hundred servants and other members of their 
household; but an aged couple without chil- 
dren always seem lonely. 

While Abram was living peaceably in the 
plain of Mamre, the first war of which we 
have any knowledge was waged in the vale of 
Siddim. Four kings combined to march against 
Sodom and Gomorrah. They were Amraphel, 
king of Shinar ; Arioch, king of Ellasar ; Che- 
dorlaomer, king of Blam ; and Tidal, king of 
nations. The "vale of Siddim" was that val- 
ley which is now covered with the Dead Sea, 
and it lay so near to Hebron that intelligence 
of a battle could easily be conveyed thither. 

The kings of that day were very different 
from those of Europe in modern times. They 
were no more than the leaders of certain tribes 
or people, like the chiefs of the Indian nations. 
It is probable that these four kings could not 



THE FIRST WAR. 249 

muster more than three hundred warriors 
apiece, and Abram could do this without going 
out of his own household. They were igno- 
rant and savage, never more pleased than when 
plundering their fellow-men. Their object in 
marching against Sodom and Gomorrah was 
to sack the cities, and carry away their pos- 
sessions. They were greedy of gain, ambitious 
to be the conquerors of other nations. So that 
the cause of the war was very similar to the 
cause of wars since that day. Unholy ambi- 
tion has given rise to most of the conflicts 
that have been waged in the world. It was 
this, or something less, that induced the afore- 
said kings to attack Sodom and Gomorrah. 
They certainly had no good reason for it. Yery 
often the most trivial occurrence has occa- 
sioned war. 

A writer says : " War often begins like the 
quarrels of children. I recollect well when 



250 THE FIRST WAR. 

the great boys used to set the little ones to 
fighting, that they might enjoy the fun. It 
was necessary only to put a chip on one boy's 
head, and dare the other to knock it. off. No 
sooner said, than off goes the chip, and down 
comes the blow ; and now the little heroes 
maul each other and pull hair, to the great 
delight of all mischief-making spectators." 

This is true. In the early history of our 
country there was a war among the Indians 
called "The Grasshopper War." An Indian 
mother went to visit a neighbor, taking her 
little son with her. As they were crossing the 
fields her boy picked up a grasshopper, which 
he carried to the cabin whither they were going. 
There another Indian child set up his claim 
to the animal, and a contest ensued, in which 
the mothers soon became parties, and then the 
fathers, and finally a war between the tribes 
to which they respectively belonged was the 



THE FIRST WAR. 251 

result. The war that was waged in the vale 
of Siddim was even more cruel and wicked 
than this ; for the grasshopper might have been 
found upon the land of the tribe whose boy- 
claimed its possession after it was found, and 
therefore there was some ground of a title to 
it ; but the four kings named made war upon 
Sodom and Gomorrah without pretending to 
have any claim upon their houses or lands. 
They carried away their goods, knowing that 
it was downright robbery. 

When the news reached Sodom that the 
king of Shinar and others were preparing for 
an attack, Bera, the king of Sodom, consulted 
with the kings of four other places near by ; 
namely, Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, 
king of Admah, and Shemeber, king of Ze- 
boiim, and the king of Zoar ; and all of them 
agreed to unite their forces to repel the in- 
vasion. They marched out upon the plain of 
21 p 



252 THE FIRST WAR. 

Siddim, and there the battle was fought, and 
the enemy came off victorious. This valley 
was full of slime-pits, into which many of the 
Sodomites fell, and perished, while others fled 
to the mountains for safety. Some were taken 
prisoners, and conveyed with the goods stolen 
into the land of the invaders. Among the 
prisoners were Lot and his family. They seized 
him, and carried him away captive, with all 
his possessions. It is probable that Lot re- 
flected upon his ungrateful conduct with his 
uncle, when he found himself in the hands of 
the enemy. He must have thought how un- 
kindly he treated him, and how unwisely he 
took advantage of him to increase his own 
property. And now he was getting his pay ! 
God was bringing him into trying circum- 
stances. He went to Sodom in a passion, and 
now he was going out of it in captivity. He 
sought to increase his goods, and now he lost 






THE FIRST WAR. 253 

them all. His own conduct entailed upon him 
this misery. 

We have said that those who escaped from 
the enemy fled to the mountains for refuge. 
It was common in those days for people to 
flee from their dwellings, when attacked by a 
foe, or when they heard that an army was 
marching upon them, and hide themselves in 
the caves and fastnesses of the mountains. 
They so lived that the dwellings of a whole 
village could be vacated in a few hours, all 
the goods within them being carried off to the 
mountains in that time. A well-known writer 
says : " It is still a common practice in the 
East for the inhabitants of towns and villages 
to hasten for safety to the mountains in time 
of alarm and danger, or at least to send their 
valuable property away. The movables of the 
Asiatics, in camps, villages, and towns, are as- 
tonishingly few in comparison with those which 



254 THE FIRST WAR. 

the refinements of European life render ne- 
cessary. A few carpets, kettles, and dishes 
of tinned copper, compose the bulk of their 
property, which can speedily be packed up, 
and sent away on the backs of camels or 
mules, with the women and children mounted 
on the baggage. In this way a large village 
or town is in a few hours completely gutted, 
and the inhabitants, with every stick and rag 
belonging to them, can place themselves in 
safety in the mountains. The writer of this 
note travelled in Koordistan in 1829, follow- 
ing, in one part of the journey, the course 
which had recently been taken by the Persian 
troops in their march from Tabreez to Sulima- 
nieh. He came to one large village which 
had been partially burnt by the Persians, who 
had also maltreated the inhabitants, who had 
afterwards fled to the mountains. The news 
of this transaction having been carried over 



THE FIRST WAR. 255 

night to the next large village, about twenty 
miles distant, the Persians, on their arrival 
there the next day, found it completely de- 
serted by the inhabitants, who had, in the short 
interval, removed with all their live stock and 
goods to the mountains. He found it in this 
condition a fortnight later ; the inhabitants 
being afraid to come back till the soldiers 
should have returned from their expedition." 

One of the dwellers in Sodom, who escaped 
the violence of the foe, fled to Mamre and 
told Abram of the war in Sodom, and that the 
enemy had come off victorious. When he in- 
formed him that Lot, his nephew, was taken 
prisoner, and carried off with all his posses- 
sions, the old man's heart was touched. Not- 
withstanding Lot had been so ungrateful, 
Abram loved him still, and could not endure 
the thought of his being carried into captivi- 
ty. He forgot the past, and resolved that he 
21* 



256 THE FIRST WAR. 

would go and overcome his captors, and bring 
him back to his home. How good a man he 
must have been thus to forgive his nephew, and 
risk his own life to recover him from captivity ! 
Abram was not a warrior. He loved peace 
and the quiet of home. He was too good a 
man to fight with his fellow-men, except in 
self-defence. It is right for a good man to 
defend his own family, or the families of his 
neighbors, from the robber and assassin, even 
though he is obliged to shoot them down. 
But it is not right for him to make war with 
any person or people, for the purpose of get- 
ting their property or killing them for revenge. 
Abram knew that the aforesaid kings attacked 
Sodom for the sake of plunder, — that they 
and all their soldiers were nothing less than 
robbers, — and therefore he felt justified in 
pursuing them, and battling to restore Lot. 
It was new business for him. He was about 
the last man we should expect to see waging 



THE FIRST WAR. 257 

war. But he determined to pursue these con- 
querors of Sodom. So he called together his 
servants, who numbered three hundred and 
eighteen, and made known to them his war- 
like plans, to which they cheerfully acceded. 
As soon as they could get their weapons ready, 
they hastened away, with faithful Abram for 
their leader, in pursuit of the enemy. They 
overtook them in Dan, which was situated at 
the foot of Mount Lebanon, and was the place 
where Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, set up a 
golden calf for the people to worship. Here 
Abram and his men halted, probably before 
the enemy saw them, and waited until night 
to assail them. When the night came, so that 
the darkness would hide their movements, 
Abram divided his men into companies, and 
attacked the foe from different quarters. One 
writer thinks he attacked them as the Arabs 
do the caravans. He says : " The manner in 
which the Arabs harass the caravans of the 



258 THE FIRST WAR. 

East is described in the same page. Char din 
tells us, ' that the manner of their making 
war and pillaging the caravans is to keep by 
the side of them, or to follow them in the 
rear, nearer or farther off, according to their 
forces, which it is very easy to do in Arabia, 
which is one great plain, and in the night 
they silently fall upon the camp, and carry off 
one part of it before the rest are got under 
arms.' He supposes that Abram fell upon the 
camp of the four kings that had carried away 
Lot precisely in the same Arab manner, and 
by that means, with unequal forces, accom- 
plished his design, and rescued Lot." 

The battle was very short. It was so well 
planned and unexpected, that the enemy yield- 
ed with little resistance, and Lot was recovered, 
with all the goods that had been stolen from 
Sodom. Lot was as much surprised as the 
enemy to see Abram there with an armed force. 
If he had not repented of his ungrateful con- 



THE FIRST WAR. 259 

duct before, we think his heart must have 
relented when he saw his uncle perilling his 
life to recover him from his savage captors. 
It was a joyful day for Lot, when he found 
himself free, and his face set toward home. 

The news of Abram's contest with the four 
confederated kings reached Sodom before he 
did on his return, and great joy was manifest- 
ed. The people prepared to give him a hearty 
welcome, and express their gratitude for his 
kind and courageous act. " The king of Sodom 
went out to meet him," followed, probably, by 
many people anxious to honor their deliverer. 
Says Roberts: "The conduct of this king is 
beautifully illustrated by the manners of the 
East at this day. Not to meet a friend or an 
expected guest, would be considered as rude 
in the extreme. So soon as the host hears of 
the approach of his visitant, he and his attend- 
ants go forth in courtly style ; and when they 
meet him, the host addresses him, ' Ah ! this 



260 THE FIRST WAR. 

is a happy day for me ; by your favor I am 
found in health ! ' He will then, perhaps, put 
his arm around his waist, or gently tap him 
on the shoulder, as they proceed toward the 
house. When at the door, he again makes 
his bow, and politely ushers him in, and the 
rest joyfully follow, congratulating each other 
on the happy meeting." 

The king of Sodom offered to give Abram 
all the goods he brought back, as an expres- 
sion of his gratitude ; but ' Abram would not 
take a single article. This refusal to be en- 
riched by the goods shows that he did not 
prosecute the war for gain, but only to defend 
and deliver the innocent. 

Abram lost no time by remaining at Sodom, 
but as soon as possible directed his steps home- 
ward. He reached home well satisfied with 
his triumph, and more pleased than ever with 
the fidelity and bravery of his men. 

Lot was glad to get back, and thought much 



THE FIRST WAR. 261 

of this additional proof of his uncle's kind- 
ness. He returned to his abode thankful that 
God had preserved his life, and resolved to 
love and serve him better in time to come. 

Such is a brief account of the first war on 
record ; and from that day to this it has done 
its bloody work in almost every part of the 
world. It is surprising to learn what fearful 
havoc of human life it has wrought. In the 
Eussian campaign of 1812 there perished one 
million soldiers in six months. The wars of 
Napoleon sacrificed six millions, and all the 
wars consequent upon the French Revolution, 
some nine or ten millions. The Spaniards de- 
stroyed twelve millions of Americans in forty- 
two years. The wars in the time of Sesostris 
sacrificed fifteen million lives ; those of Semira- 
mis, Cyrus, and Alexander, ten millions each ; 
those of Alexander's successors, twenty millions. 
In Grecian wars fifteen millions perished; in 
Jewish wars, twenty-five millions ; in the wars of 



262 THE FIRST WAR. 

the twelve Caesars, thirty millions; in those of 
the Romans before Julius Csesar, sixty millions ; 
in those of the Roman Empire, and of the Sar- 
acens and Turks, sixty millions each ; in those 
of the Reformation, thirty millions ; in those of 
the Middle Ages, and the nine Crusades in two 
hundred years, forty millions each ; in those of 
the Tartars, eighty millions; and in those of 
Africa, one hundred millions. The distinguished 
Edmund Burke estimates the total loss of life 
in war, in all past ages, at thirty-five thousand 
millions, which is more than three and a half 
times the present population of the globe, and 
about twelve hundred times more than the 
present population of the United States. If 
only one person on the earth died each second, 
it would take twelve hundred years for this 
vast number to die ! How cruel and wicked, 
then, is war ! 

THE END. 



Ci jttl/ i-'/.W. 



